An armed cattleman at Lakatoc Cattle Camp, Tonj in the past. The area has been rocked by intercommunal violence related to cattle and revenge killings | Credit | Marcus Perkins

At least 22 people have been killed and over 30 others wounded in a cattle raiding incident in Tonj South County of Warrap state, the former Governor of defunct Tonj state has said.

The incident occurred on Friday in a place called Lol-Akol or Warcok cattle camp.

For the past years, cattle raiding has been a major problem among the pastoralist communities in South Sudan.

Since 2011, hundreds of civilians have been killed and several cattle had been raided due to cattle related attacks in the country.

Mathew Mathiang Magoordit, the former Governor of defunct Tonj state that the women and children are among the victims.

He described the incident to Eye Radio yesterday.

“What happened is that armed men from Cuibet attacked the civilians of Tonj on 20^th March in a cattle camp called Lol-Akol situated behind the mountain,” the former governor said.

“They killed 22 people who are the civilians of Tonj and 31 others injured. This left two women dead who and two children who were at the cattle camp. 201 cattle were also killed in a crossfire. All this incident occurred on 20^th March.”

For his part, William Wol Mayom, the former Information Minister of the defunct Tonj condemned the incident.

“We are at this capacity to denounce or condemn the incident in the strongest term possible the recent attack that was carried out in a place called Lol-Akol or Warcok.”

“This attack has actually killed many citizens or many civilians in Tonj and also the bad thing overall is the killing of our intellectual, the former executive director of the former governor.”

Authorities of the defunct Gok state are yet to comment on the matter.