The former Greater Pibor Area Administrator David Yau Yau says an attack was carried out by Lou Nuer raiders in the greater Pibor area from 8-13 February, explaining that it may be retaliation for an earlier attack in the Akobo area.
Other sources confirmed that fighting began in the area around 8 January between armed Murle and a Lou Nuer raiding party in the Jom swamp or island area.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj Yau Yau said: “You know it very difficult to give details about cattle keepers, you find that the Murle live in areas which are far from towns, so there are cattle thieves.”
Yau Yau, who himself is a Murle, explained that the Lou Nuer raid may be retaliatory: “Those people didn’t come for nothing, I am sure, they came to recover their things which were taken, the clashes that occur are always a reaction of cattle raiding from the two sides.”
However, the former chief administrator said he had no more information about what specifically triggered the recent attack by the Lou Nuer.
“The governor is there in the area, he can give you more details, but the information I have is that maybe those people came to recover their things, I heard that they were attacked in one of their areas near Akobo where people were killed and children were abducted and cattle were also raided.”
Radio Tamazuj was unable to reach the governor of the area, which President Salva Kiir recently renamed Boma State rather than Greater Pibor Administrative Area.
Abraham Mamayo, a Murle chief, told Radio Tamazuj separately that youths from the Lou Nuer tribe carried out attacks from 8-13 February, claiming that the raid resulted heavy civilian casualties. Radio Tamazuj was unable to independently verify specific casualty numbers given by the chief.
He also said thousands of cattle were taken from Pibor and Likuangule counties.
Sam David, the spokesman of the Greater Pibor Area Administration who was ousted in December, also confirmed clashes but could not provide more details on the casualties.
“There was a group of Nuer that came from the direction of Akobo that attacked people of Pibor so there were problems between them… from the 8th until the 13th,” said the former GPAA spokesman.
According to the chief Mamayo, some of the attackers were in military uniform and they were using heavy machine guns. “We don’t how they acquired these,” he said.
But Yau Yau said that the attacks were carried out by criminals. “Guns are available anywhere in South Sudan here, so we cannot say there are organized forces, it is very difficult, yes they were reportedly heavily armed, but we don’t have details until now,” he said.
Aid organizations in Pibor town reportedly have not been able to confirm what happened in the affected areas, which are remote from the town.
“We’ve checked in with our field team… they’ve talked to other humanitarian partners and actors on the ground who cannot corroborate this information at this time,” said Ashley McLaughlin, Media and Communications Officer of IOM South Sudan.
Contacted by satellite phone, Koang Rambang Chol, the deputy governor of Bieh State, homeland of Lou Nuer, said that Murle raiders had attacked areas near Akobo, but he declined to confirm reports of attacks on the Murle areas. However, another SPLM-IO official hailing from the area confirmed that Lou Nuer youth in Akobo had mobilized themselves, indicating that there had been preparations for an attack on the Murle.
Photo: Cattle in South Sudan (UN Photo/Tim McKulka)
Update: This article has been updated to include comments from Koang Rambang Chol.