The State Minister of Information, William Koji says rival cattle keepers fought in Rumbek North County, burning houses and displacing people.

Koji could not immediately establish details of the incident which occurred on Thursday.

He however said a joint operation comprising the army and police was dispatched to the area to restore security.

Speaking to Eye Radio, Minister William Koji urged the two neighboring communities to coexist in peace.

“What happened is that these attacks by communities of Luanyjang to Tonj East, sometimes back they burned houses and now they came again and attacked people and displaced people,” Koji told Eye Radio.

“It is not only cattle camps, they even attack households you know, disorganizing the settlement of the locals. Our forces were sent and they made the attackers go back.

“The peace initiative in Warrap was for all of them, the initiative was meant to keep peace among themselves and with their neighbors but to our surprise, we are still seeing them carrying on with violence.

Meanwhile, the commissioner of Tonj East County in Warrap State says the fight was over grazing land.

John Deng Kok stated that heavily armed cattle keepers from Tonj East attempted to camp at the border area of Payak in search of pasture and water.

This, he said, resulted in clashes with cattle keepers from the neighboring Rumbek North, which left at least five people wounded.

“What happened on the 14^th of this month was some armed civilians migrated with a big number of cattle to grazing land and water. The cattle camped in a place called Payak between Tonj East and Rumbek North,”

“This was heard by armed civilians from Rumbek North and made them unhappy and decided to repulse the cattle keepers, it appeared the issue was over grazing land and fighting took place.

“Two people wounded from the side of Tonj and I heard that three people from the other side were wounded too. No one was killed, no cattle were raided and no resumption of any conflict again.”

The UN Mission in South Sudan has noted that disputes over grazing land, cattle-raiding, and revenge killings are contributing to a spate of violent clashes in the Tonj region.