Armed youth walk a village in South Sudan’s Pibor region. Photo: AFP

At least two people were killed, five others injured and hundreds of cattle raided by suspected criminals from Greater Pibor Administrative area on Thursday, Pibor authorities denied knowledge about the incident.

Jonglei State Information Minister, Nyamar Lony Thichot told Eye Radio that the attack happened in Pamai Village of Weykol Payam in Uror county on Thursday.

Ms Lony said two of the wounded were in critical condition.

They were allegedly shot while trying fend off the attackers said to be armed youth from Greater Pibor Administrative Area.

“This happened on 5th. There were criminals from greater Pibor Administrative Area who attacked a village called Pamai village, in weykol Payam, which is in Uror county.

“In the cattle raid that took place, more than 500 herds of cattle were raided and the youth tried to retrieve the cows back but five were injured with 2 in a critical situation, and 2 lives were lost”

According to Ms Lony, more than two hundred cattle were recovered from the attackers after a coordination between authorities in Jonglei and their Pibor counterparts.

“Some of the cows were retrieved yesterday (Friday), around 200 were retrieved back to Uror County, but the rest have not been retrieved up to now”, she said.

When contacted, Hon. Jacob Werchum who is Minister of Information for Greater Pibor Administration Area denied the claim, adding that there is no prove an attack took place, and that raided cattle have been recovered.

“There’s no verification on how, on when they have recovered the cattle because, it was them who said that they recovered cattle which were stolen by Murle. On the other hand, there’s no clear evidence to show that the cattle were returned.

“So that one, I regarded as a baseless accusation because they did not provide me with the evidence in order for us to do an investigation. I told them that I cannot regard it as inaccurate information until we do an investigation to verify that they (attackers) were from Murle.”