The National Minister of Environment has called for urgent humanitarian intervention in Eastern Equatoria State’s Kapoeta East County in the aftermath of a bloody cattle raid by armed Murle youths.
The deadly raid last week was unprecedented in the county’s Kauto area saw 90 women and children abducted, 32 people killed and 22 others injured. The assailants also made off with 16,000 head of cattle and over 6,000 goats and sheep, according to Elia John Ahaji, the state’s information minister.
Speaking exclusively to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday, Minister Josephine Napwon Cosmas said she lost about 30 relatives in the attack.
She also claimed that about 13,000 head of cattle were raided leaving the people vulnerable as they mostly depend on their livestock for survival.
“The communication we received from home (Kapoeta East County) is that people are suffering after the raid. The Toposa only depend on their cattle and that was their livelihood, so, right now as we talk, children and women are suffering because they (Murle) have taken all (livestock) that they need for a living,” she stated. “So, we need humanitarian assistance because the surviving victims are now desperate and there is also another problem of the affected area having poor accessibility by road.”
“We need the government to take action and call upon humanitarians to respond because the affected people have no services, have been robbed of their cattle, and the children and elderly are dying of hunger,” Napwon added.
The authorities in Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA), in an unprecedented move, on Tuesday acknowledged that armed youths from their jurisdiction carried out the massive raid in Eastern Equatoria State’s Kapoeta East County last week.
Abraham Kelang, the GPAA information minister, acknowledged to this publication that the suspected criminals who orchestrated the attack were indeed from Greater Pibor, and the abducted people and rustled livestock would be traced and returned. He however said they needed a month to do this.
He said a security team has been dispatched to investigate the incident so that the perpetrators are apprehended and brought to book.