Unity state: Raiders injure policeman, seize over 400 cattle
By Bonifacio Taban Kuich
May 7, 2013 (BENTIU) – A policeman was injured and over 400 cattle seized when armed youth stormed Unity state’s Mayiandit County on Monday, an official said.
“The raiders were armed and had to fight a combined force of the SPLA [South Sudan army] and the area Police. Unfortunately, one policemen was killed while trying to recover the stolen cattle,” said Gideon Gatpan Thoar.
He described the fighting between the raiders and the security forces as “the heaviest fighting” the area has ever witnessed in recent years.
Thoar, however, stressed that talks were ongoing with his counterparts in Warrap state to ensure the stolen animals are recovered and handed back to their rightful owners.
The incident comes hardly a month after the United Nations Mission in the country (UNMISS) hosted lawmakers from Warrap, Unity and Lake States, to devise mechanisms that will halt the practice of cattle raids.
Top of the conference agenda, officials told Sudan Tribune, was the call for these lawmakers to actively engage youth in dialogues, sports activities and other social practices. Last month, Mayiandit County officials organised a football tournament for its youth to interact with their Lake State counterparts.
Critics, however, say the traditional practices of cattle raids continues in a “vicious cycle” despite various interventions by state authorities and their development partners.
“It is very important to maintain transparency and reality communication, since 25th [April], we had a breakdown in communication and we [have] not yet got a feedback. Am urging the officials from the area to immediate find out where these cows hideout to be return to their rightful owners,” the commissioner said
A month ago, raiders from Payinjiar County in Lakes state reportedly abducted eight women from Unity state, only to release them a week after interrogation.
South Sudan, after its decades of civil war, is still trying to grapple with how to disarm its heavily armed civilian population, seen as a setback in efforts to maintain stability.
(ST)