A local chief in Abyei says that on Sunday that 1,500 cattle were raided by men who came from north-west of Abyei and killed one person in the course of the raid.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Sunday, Chief Akanon said, “An incident occurred in Nyinchuor North-West of Abyei area. 1500 cattle were raided by Missiriya and Sudan’s militia and one person died by the name of Chan Miyom Deng from Abyei sons while he was shepherding cattle.” ‘

He claimed that the attackers came from a place northwest of Abyei called Chigei. Although he himself did not witness the raid, he said he heard second-hand that the attackers used guns that were “not for civilians” and also wore uniforms.

Clarifying how the shepherd was killed and whether he was resisting the raiders, Akanon elaborated that the shepherd was attempting to herdd the cattle to his side while the raiders wanted to take cattle to their side too where the shepherd eventually got killed while resisting the raiders.

He said there were four shepherds shepherding the cattle but three went for a break when their colleague remained behind looking after the cattle. The chief said that the raiders did not use motorbikes or cars but rather came on foot and that they did not attack people in Nyinchuor village but only raided cattle.