Unity state: Five police and one soldier die in Koch-Mayom clashes
May 17, 2013 (BENTIU) – Five Unity state policemen and one soldier were killed in Buoth district of Koch county on Friday in an attack local authorities have blamed on youth from neighbouring Mayom county.
The incident follows tension and clashes this week along the county border, which separates the Bul Nuer of Mayom and the Jageay Nuer of Koch county.
On Tuesday a cattle raid by Bul Nuer youth killed two civilians and injured three, according to officials. Youth from the Jageay responded with an attack on Mayom county on Wednesday, which killed five Bul Nuer civilians.
Unity state’s deputy governor, Michael Chiengjiek Geay, told Sudan Tribune that the five police officers and a soldier from South Sudan’s wild life services were murdered by a group of around 80 heavily armed young men from Mayom county in Friday’s attack.
They managed to steal 28 cattle, killing one civilian in the process, he said.
Geay says the government has dispatched militarily police to restore calm among the population and has arrested five suspects, adding that civilians shooting dead police was unusual in Unity state.
Residents in Koch county told Sudan Tribune on Friday that an investigation was needed, alleging that Mayom county commissioner, Bol Mayak, had a role in mobilising the young men from his area to carrying out the attack.
Sudan Tribune was unable to reach the commissioner for comment on Friday but the deputy governor said that commissioner Mayak was denies the claims.
“We are working out as the government to find out who is behind these deaths of people and truth will be revealed out soon”, he said.
Cattle raiding, which was a problem before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between national government of Khartoum and the former rebels Sudan People Liberation Movement, has worsened since 2005.
Decade of civil war have left South Sudan awash with weapons and various attempts to disarm the civilian population have had mixed results. The Unity state deputy governor reaffirmed the SPLM government’s desire to take weapons out of the hands of civilians following the recent attacks.
(ST)