Armed youth suspected to be from Ayod County on Sunday raided a village in neighboring Nyirol County in Jonglei State and stole at least 120 head of cattle, local officials said.
Brig. Gen. John Deng, the Nyirol County police inspector, told Radio Tamazuj Tuesday that the raiders who he insisted came from Ayod County went away with the animals while they were being grazed in Guer village.
“120 cows were taken by some youths from Ayod on Sunday. The cows were raided from Guer village of Pading Payam,” he said. “We are in contact with Ayod authorities who promised us that they will recover the stolen cows.”
Meanwhile, Makuei Puok Bai, a local official in Pading Payam condemned the attack and called for government intervention.
“What happened on Sunday afternoon was that armed youth from Paguong in Ayod attacked Guer and went away with 120 cows.” He said. “As politicians in the area, we want the government to intervene because these raids between Ayod and Nyirol have been going on for two years.”
For his part, Gabriel Tot Kai, the Ayod SPLM party secretary-general, also condemned the attack and said security forces have been deployed to recover the stolen animals.
“We learned about the attack on Monday, carried out investigations, and realized that some senior county politicians instigated the attack,” he revealed. “Secondly, we deployed security forces to those areas to recover the stolen animals.”