Unknown gunmen have seized six Sudanese traders who tried to cross the border with goods to Northern Bahr el Ghazal State on Tuesday.

Three South Sudanese nationals who were travelling with them were robbed and freed. The victims say they were attacked in the Sudanese border town of Meyrem.

“We saw people getting off from camels’ back with guns. We were told to get out of the vehicle and they began to remove everything we had, especially trade commodities. There after they began to beat us badly,” William Rafael, traders, narrated his ordeal to Eye Radio upon arrival in Aweil town on Tuesday.

“Lastly, they asked where we were from and we told them that ‘we are south Sudanese’ and they said: ‘go now on foot’.”

Sudan has closed its borders with South Sudan. Sudanese officials say the measure is to maintain security during the elections.

A similar incident happened in 2012. Sudanese authorities impounded more than 60 vehicles carrying food across the borders to South Sudan.

The move came amid unprecedented levels of tension between the two neighbors after South Sudan briefly occupied the disputed region of Heglig which supplies Khartoum with half of its daily oil output.