ع
Warrap state authorities attributed the killings on Monday to armed elements from Mayom County in neighboring Unity state together with sections of Alabek Payam who targeted Akop Payam in Tonj North County. The state’s caretaker information minister, William Wol Mayom Bol, said 50 of those killed belonged to the attacking party while 22 came from the Apuk Padoch community that bore the brunt of the raid, with another 38 people wounded according to the official tally. Bol’s statement described the burning of the Athieng-puol and Rual-malith markets along with multiple homes in surrounding villages and the theft of an unspecified number of cattle from the Majak-kou camp. The Warrap government condemned the coordinated assault and directed security forces to deploy immediately to the area while arranging medical evacuation for the injured.
Governor Angelo Ngot Mayar expressed condolences to the bereaved families and called on residents to refrain from further revenge actions as officials from both Warrap and Unity states opened channels to recover the stolen livestock and identify those responsible. The state appealed to humanitarian organizations to provide food, shelter and medicine to women, children and elderly residents left vulnerable by the destruction. Bol linked the latest outbreak to a targeted killing four days earlier in Mading-Juer that claimed eight lives including a young girl, an incident he presented as the immediate trigger for the larger operation. Radio Tamazuj reported that Unity state officials had not yet responded to the accusations leveled against groups from their territory.
The incident continues a pattern of intercommunal clashes in the region where cattle represent both economic assets and markers of social status, a dynamic exacerbated by widespread civilian possession of firearms left over from years of conflict. A Reuters dispatch from August documented a comparable dawn raid by Unity state herders on Warrap communities that left at least 49 people dead and 33 wounded in Tonj North County. Conflict monitor ACLED separately recorded at least 60 deaths and 50 injuries from an attack in the same vicinity during August together with 58 fatalities in a similar March incident, figures that underscore the frequency of such violence.
South Sudan has endured recurrent cattle-related feuds since gaining independence in 2011, with competition over scarce grazing land and water points frequently escalating into armed confrontations that displace thousands. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project has consistently listed Warrap among the states most affected by subnational violence, a trend that prompted authorities to impose a six-month state of emergency in the territory last year in an attempt to curb the spiral. UNMISS, the United Nations peacekeeping mission, has sponsored border peace conferences that proposed special courts to adjudicate cattle rustling cases between communities in Warrap and adjacent areas, though implementation has lagged.
Officials have urged calm while security agencies pursue those behind the latest assault, emphasizing cooperation between the two state governments to break the retaliatory sequence. The violence arrives as South Sudan prepares for national elections scheduled for December, the first since independence, a vote already postponed several times amid persistent instability. Humanitarian partners have been asked to step in swiftly to mitigate the immediate suffering of those who lost homes and livelihoods in the burned settlements.
