By William Madouk
The death toll in gory cattle camp clashes between Luanyjang of Warrap and Pakam of Lakes state stands at 25 people being killed and 15 others wounded including two children and a woman.
Addressing the media, Warrap State Minister of Information, William Wol Mayom said the fighting erupted out on February 21, when 11 men headed for Rumbek North from Warrap were ambushed in Wuntur cattle camp.
“When the gunshots were heard by their colleagues [from the side of Luanjang] behind, they ran in and they already found 5 people were killed,” Mayom said.
The Minister narrated that youth from both sides involved in deadly clashes that lasted for 6 hours resulting to dead of 2 scores.
“However, in the evening a report came that 25 people were confirmed killed, 15 wounded including two children and one woman. And 74 cattle were also shot dead,” he continued.
Minister Mayom claim that the attackers came from Pakam Community of Rumbek North in Lakes State.
He added that the State government swiftly intervened and sent security personnel, intellectuals including politicians to quell the tensions. He further condemned the incident.
“We condemn this incident in the strongest terms possible because as government, we don’t want our civilians to kill themselves in senseless fight,” he bemoaned.
“Warrap government is in full collaboration with Lakes State government under H.E Riny Tueny Mabor and soon we will conduct inter-state peace conference,” he added.
Minister Mayom stressed that in near future the two governments will form joint investigation team in order to avoid misinformation, conflicting reports and discover the root causes of such clashes.
“On our side, we are prioritizing to cease the hostilities and tensions between the two communities and this is why we sent [to Rumbek] the team of politicians, citizens and intellectuals of Tonj East to go and return back the cattle.
However, Lakes State’s Information Minister, William Koji told one of the local media that the incident occurred in Madol Payam of Rumbek North County.