June 28. (EUROPA PRESS) –
At least 25 people, including 18 soldiers, died on Saturday in clashes in the South Sudanese state of Warrap (center), authorities have confirmed, as part of an operation launched against cattle rustling at the height of inter-community clashes. in the African country.
Warrap authorities have indicated that 18 soldiers and seven militiamen were killed in the fighting in Rualbet Payam, North Tonj county, after soldiers were sent to the area to try to recover cattle stolen by the attackers.
According to information collected by the radio station Radio Tamazuj, among the soldiers killed is the head of an Army Intelligence unit and a head of military operations, as well as a former Mayen Jur county commissioner.
The clashes erupted after a group of assailants stole more than 100 head of cattle in Aliek last week, after which the authorities ordered the start of a search operation to locate the attackers and recover the stolen cattle from their owners.
Warrap’s Information Minister, Riing Deng, stated that the soldiers “were attacked” by the assailants during the day on Saturday and stressed that the event left several missing. “We don’t know the number of injured, we have to confirm it,” he pointed out.
On the other hand, about ten people died on Monday in an attack in the town of Ngangala Boma, in Central Equatoria, an incident also blamed on a dispute over cattle, as confirmed by the head of Liria Payam, Charles Andrea Jada.
Thus, he has detailed that a group of winners broke into Ngangala and killed nine people. “One person on his side was also killed. The bodies have been sent to Juba. Six to seven houses were burned down, some 200 goats were stolen and three shops were looted,” she said.
Inter-community clashes in Warrap and other parts of South Sudan, on the rise in recent months, are often motivated by cattle rustling and disputes between herders and farmers in the country’s most fertile areas, especially because of rising desertification and population displacement.
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