Authorities in the now-defunct Tonj State say eight people were killed and 14 others wounded in two separate intercommunal clashes between 2nd and 3rd February.

The fighting was between the warring communities of the Luachjang from Tonj East County and their neighboring Lou community from Tonj North County.

Angelo Dut, the Executive Director of defunct Lou Paher County, said the fighting was triggered by revenge and counter-raiding attacks and attributed the latest clashes to the arrival of cattle of Mayen Kuol Riak to the Lou area. 

Colonel Mayen Kuol is an SSPDF deserter from the Luachjang community and is reported to be commanding a huge number of armed youth.

“On the 2nd of February, a guy from Luach called Mayen Kuol Riak brought his cattle to the area of Lou and stopped at a place called Parpar where people fought. The cause was that there was a person killed from Lou earlier during cattle raiding by the visiting youth,” according to Dut. “When the relatives heard that Mayen was in the area, they said his people are the ones who killed their person and went to meet Mayen at Parpar. From there, fighting broke out at a water point, and then again this morning (Wednesday), they fought at that place. Some people were killed and some wounded. On my side, seven are wounded and five killed and some cattle have been looted.”

The Executive Director of Romic, Mabior Adel, confirmed the fighting between Lou Paher and Luachjang communities and linked it to the raiding of Lou Paher cattle by criminals from Luachjang.

He said two people were killed and seven others wounded from the Luachjang community in the two-day fighting. 

“The problem is that some criminals from all counties of Luachjang went to Lou Paher County and raided cattle from Lou. The owners of the cattle followed their cattle but they could not find them. When they found different cattle from the Luachjang area, they raided them,” Adel said. 

“That day one person was killed from Lou and two were wounded from the side of Luach. The following morning, the Luachjang people who went to see the calves at the place where fighting took place found people from Lou in the area and another fighting occurred. That was on the 3rd of February, two people were killed from Luach side and three from Lou's side, five people were also wounded from Luach side. From our side the total number killed is two and seven wounded,” he added. 

He also confirmed fighting between Thiik and Luachjang communities which left one person dead from the Thiik community. Both Thiik and Luachjang communities are from Tonj East County.

Adel said the fighting which took place concurrently with the fighting between Lou and Luach was due to a long-running conflict.

Thiik County Executive Director Luka Marial confirmed the attack and killing of one person from the Thiik community on Wednesday by armed youth from the Luachjang community.

“People from Luachjang fought with Lou and they came and attacked people from Thiik, killing one person by the name Makol Awel Reec. They attacked the people of Thiik at a place called Paduguer. They have now retreated, they killed that person and took his gun,” Marial said.

Intercommunal fighting among communities of Tonj East and North Counties is common and the hostilities stem from revenge killings and cattle rustling.