Twic East attack kills seven, say Jonglei officials

August 8, 2013 (BOR) – Gunmen killed at least seven people and stole hundreds of cows on Thursday in an attack in Twic East county in South Sudan’s troubled state of Jonglei, officials and witnesses told Sudan Tribune.

Joshua Madit, the acting commissioner of Twic East county, said the attack occurred at about 6pm when pastoralists were gathering their animals in Alilei cattle camp in Maar Payam [district].

“Details are just coming in but I am told six people are killed,” said Madit who declined to provide the identities of the dead. The commissioner said the stolen cows were driven towards the east of Jonglei, where South Sudan’s army is fighting insurgents in Pibor county.

Officials blamed Murle tribesmen of carrying out the attack but this could not be independently confirmed but witnesses claimed one attacker was killed and identified as a Murle.

An eyewitness put the death toll at seven, a figure confirmed by Deng Dau, who represents Twic East county in South Sudan’s national assembly in Juba.

“A group of uniformed [men], armed with heavy machinery, killed seven people,” Dau told Sudan Tribune by phone from Juba. He said two of the dead are from neighbouring Jalle payam of Bor county and five from Maar of Twic East county.

The motive of the attack was to kill people and take away the cattle, he said, adding that there is little hope to arrest the attackers or rescue the raided cattle due to heavy rains that had caused flooding and cut off most of villages from Jonglei’s capital Bor.

“There is a question of mobility,” in terms of the police and army being able to respond to such incidents, according to the MP.

Jonglei has experienced increasing cattle raiding and retaliatory attacks between rival ethnic groups since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

South Sudan officials say is aggravated by weapons left over from the civil war that ended in 2005 but also accuse neighbouring Sudan of supply arms to David Yauyau’s rebellion. An allegation denied by Khartoum.

A state-wide disarmament campaign was launched by South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir in March 2012 but the effort has been marred by allegations of human rights abuses and, despite claims of some early successes, many groups have avoided handing over their weapons.

Yauyau’s rebellion, which is based in Pibor county, has complicated the recurring tribal tensions in the state. Last month a group of thousands of Luo Nuer men from neighbouring counties attacked areas of Pibor in response, they said, to repeated Murle raids on their territory.

In the last few months rebel groups in Unity and Upper Nile state have accepted president Kiir’s offer of an amnesty but Yauyau, who previously accepted an amnesty but returned to the bush to restart his rebellion in 2011, has asked that the United Nations act as mediators. The international community and religious leaders are currently trying to to restart peace negotiations.

“All the peace loving people have been asked to accept [the presidential] amnesty. But the rebels are still attacking innocent civilians. If the UN is interested (in bringing peace to Jonglei state), then they should be persuading these outlaws who are trying to destabilize the area,” Dau said when asked if the recent raid would jeopardise efforts to bring peace to Jonglei.

(ST)