The SPLA is in contact with the Ethiopian authorities, who are conducting an operation inside South Sudan to recover children abducted last week in Gambella, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

Ethiopian officials say some armed men crossed the border and attacked the region hosting thousands of South Sudanese refugees.

They say 180 people who were killed were their nationals while more than 60 were from the attackers. More than 100 children were abducted.

“This has been confirmed by the authorities in Ethiopia that the government of South Sudan has no hand in that [attack]. These were bandits,” said Peter Bashir Gbandi, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“We are working very hard to defuse this situation and it is a position of the government that the territorial integrity of this country is the responsibility of the government of South Sudan. There is no way we will allow any criminal to go and misbehave in any country.”

For his part, the Governor of Boma State, Baba Medan, has confirmed the movement of Ethiopian forces inside his state, searching for the abducted children.

Media reports indicate that the Ethiopian army has surrounded the area where the children are being held in Boma.