Security forces kill herder while attempting to arrest suspect in Cueibet

Security forces kill herder while attempting to arrest suspect in Cueibet

South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) soldiers and police, carrying out a joint operation, shot and killed a herder identified as Kulong Mathiang Lat, who was sleeping in a cattle camp in Abyeicok Payam in Lakes State’s Cueibet County on Sunday night.

The deceased was a member of the Gelweng, which translates to “cattle guards” in Dinka, community-based armed youth groups in South Sudan’s Bahr el Ghazal region, originally formed to protect cattle and communities.

John Sawat, a relative of the deceased, told Radio Tamazuj on Monday that the victim was shot dead shortly after the security forces left their outpost at the Abyeicok Payam headquarters for an operation to apprehend a suspect from the cattle camp.

“The soldiers surrounded the cattle camp and started to spray bullets at people who were asleep in the cattle camp, killing an innocent youth, Kulong Mathiang Lat, yet the suspect they were looking for was not in the same cattle camp,” he explained. “We are calling upon the state government and Cueibet County authorities to investigate the incident that led to the killing of a person at night.”

For his part, Daniel Laat Kon, a civil society activist in Lakes State, condemned the incident and the approach used by the security forces to apprehend a suspect in the densely populated cattle camp.

He urged the government and the county commissioners to use chiefs and other influential people in the community to locate, peacefully apprehend, and hand over suspects.

“Using security forces to shoot sporadically at night to apprehend criminals in densely populated cattle camps and villages may result in unintended killings of innocent children, women, and the elderly in the cattle camps,” Laat said.

Attempts to reach the state information minister and Cueibet County acting commissioner for comment were futile.

Last month, SSPDF soldiers and police who were accompanying the acting commissioner of Cueibet County gunned down a local youth identified as Malir Mayor.