At least two people were killed and 14 were wounded by cattle raiders in Ulang County of Upper Nile State. Fourteen of those injured or killed were women or children, according to a foreign organisation working in the area.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that it treated 16 people suffering gunshot wounds but two of them died as a result of their injuries, including one child of eight years old.

The organisation dispatched a team by speedboat from its hospital in Nasir at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday after hearing of an attack downriver. The raid is thought to have taken place in the early morning hours on Saturday.

MSF brought the gunshot victims back to its hospital in Nasir, which offers surgery and emergency services.  Five of the patients are in “very critical condition” including a 12-year old girl with multiple small bowel injuries, left colon injuries and sacral fracture, and another is a young woman with lacerations of the liver.

Another medical team has stayed behind in the village and anticipates that it might soon transfer onward to Nasir seven more patients, according to a press statement yesterday.

MSF Head of Mission Raphael Gorgeu has expressed “great concern” that civilians, especially women and children, are most affected by such an attack.