Women and children killed in South Sudan cattle raid

Two boys from the Mundari tribe watch over their cattle in Terekeka, 75km north of Juba, South Sudan Heavily armed rebels have killed more than 100 people including women and children in a cattle raid in South Sudan\'s troubled Jonglei state, local officials said Sunday. Nearly 3,000 people from the region of Walgak , who are mainly cattle herders were migrating north with their cattle alongside a platoon of army escorts when they were attacked by “a huge force carrying automatic weapons.”
Jonglei governor, Kuol Manyang, confirmed that 103 people were killed, including 14 soldiers from the platoon, while the rest were civilians, mostly women and children.
Deputy military spokesman Kella Kueth said some 500 people remained missing. The attackers were apparently armed with everything from rocket-propelled grenades to spears and machetes and local officials have also confirmed that “hundred of families” are still missing.
\"The attackers left with cattle and hundreds of children and women who have not reported back to the village,\" said Akobo Country Commissioner, Goi Jooyul.
“The army is trying to retrieve the cattle from the criminals, and that will not be easy,\" he said.
This is not the first incident to affect the region, which has suffered from decades of war with northern Sudanese soldiers.
Just six months after South Sudan declared independence from Sudan, its eastern Jonglei state was engulfed in ethnic violence yet again when thousands of youths from the Lou Nuer tribe marched on Pibor vowing to wipe out the Murle tribe.
The United Nations says over 600 people were killed in that attack and around 300 more in smaller reprisal attacks. Local estimates were much higher, running into the thousands.
Many groups accuse the Murle of abducting children from neighbouring tribes, with the boys used to herd cattle and girls valued for the future dowry of cows they will earn, communities say.
The UN and the government insist that an army-led disarmament campaign that started in March has been a success, despite serious human rights abuses still being reported in the Pibor County region.
 
Source: AFP