Two women have been killed in an attack in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, a local official has said, who alleged that armed youth from the neighbouring Pibor area were responsible.
Bor County Commissioner Samuel Ateny Pech told Radio Tamazuj that the women were attacked on Friday night in Werkok Boma, Makuach Payam.
He described the assailants as “suspected criminals” from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA).
Commissioner Pech said a group of five women were targeted. Two were killed, while three others escaped and are now sheltering at a local church.
He described the victims as women who had chosen to remain in their village despite widespread insecurity, after their relatives and children had moved to the relative safety of Bor town.
“Their relatives and children are in Bor town, yet they stayed behind out of love for their homeland,” Pech said.
The commissioner added that security forces had been dispatched to pursue the attackers, but that their whereabouts were unknown.
In response to the allegations, the GPAA government said it was unaware of any attack linked to its area.
Jacob Werchum, the GPAA Minister of Information, stressed the need for verification before making such claims, warning that unverified accusations could inflame ethnic tensions.
“Unverified claims can provoke tensions, especially when there’s no evidence — it ends up disappointing and angering people. That can be very dangerous,” Minister Werchum told Radio Tamazuj.
He confirmed that the GPAA remains committed to ending cross-border crimes and has passed laws criminalising child abduction and cattle raiding.
Werchum added that officials had recently resolved to deploy security forces to crime-prone zones along the border with Jonglei State, but acknowledged that challenging terrain had hampered these efforts.