At least seven children were abducted at a stream in Ayod County’s Goak Payam in Jonglei State while fishing and fetching water on Sunday morning, a local official said.

Ayod County Commissioner James Chuol Jiek told Radio Tamazuj Monday that the abductees were in the company of many other village children who escaped unhurt to report the attack and subsequent abduction.

He also revealed that two youths were critically injured while trying to rescue the abducted children.

“On Sunday, seven children were abducted from Goak Payam, an area 3 days walk from Ayod town. These children are aged 8 to 15 and include 3 girls. They were fishing and others were collecting water at a river,” he said. “On hearing this, our youths followed the abductors to recover the children only to be waylaid and thus two youths were wounded.”     

Commissioner Chuol blamed the attack on armed youth suspected to have come from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA).

“A few days ago, we received a report of armed Pibor youth crossing over to our county and they are the ones who abducted these children,” he stated. 

However, Abraham Kelang, the GPAA Information minister, said they were not aware of the attack.

“We are not aware of any attack or abductions by our youth,” he said.