Four injured, hundreds of cattle stolen in Jonglei’s Duk county
January 18, 2016 (BOR) – At least four people were injured in an attack at Pator cattle camp in Duk county of South Sudan’s Jonglei state as hundreds of cattle went missing.
“We did not know what happened at the cattle camp, till a group of young men about 10, who left for toc, came across the raiders driving a herd of cattle in the bush. They fought, and these men managed to recover 480 cattle. Two of their men were injured, but their injuries are not live-threatening”, said Duk county commissioner, Moses Bol Manyang.
The message, he added was directly brought to Poktap village, which has a large population so that enough reinforcement to rescue stolen heads of cattle could be got.
A Sudan Tribune reporter witnessed random shooting in the air, which started at about 11:00PM [local time] Sunday as women cried and men blew whistles as a sign of attack.
A number of youth gathered at night and followed raiders who went with stolen cattle. They reportedly managed to rescue 117 heads of cattle, but the rest were still missing.
One of the chiefs of Nyarweng, Thon Bileu said he trusted his young men, led by the deputy youth leader only identified as Wang, saying they would bring back the cattle if they come across the cattle’s footprint in the bush. The approximated numbers of cattle believed to have gone with the raiders is said to be between 250 to 300 heads of cattle.
“Wang and his group are still running about them. If they get the footprint of the cattle, they will surely fight to bring them back”, said Bileu.
He said his youthmen who were engaged in the three rounds of fightings to recover cattle had sustained injuries, including Mayen Mayet, Majok Deng Chuol from Hot section, Kur Nyieth and Mabior Aluong from other sections within Duk communities.
Bileu, however, confirmed that nobody was killed in the violent fighting in Duk county.
Multiple sources told Sudan Tribune,that one raider was killed at Pator and on identifying body, the locals could tell that the raiders came from the Murle area.
“The group of men who ran after this cattle did not find them because in the bush the footprint of the cattle mixed up with that of the herd of antelopes, so they could not trace them”, said Manyang.
(ST).