{Government struggling to reign in violence in remote areas, facing raiders armed with guns and machetes.}<\/p>\n
Rumbek – For centuries, cattle raiding has been a problem among pastoralist communities in South Sudan.<\/p>\n
And years of conflict have made the stealing raids even more dangerous, with young raiders using guns and machetes. <\/p>\n
Local organisations say more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in cattle raids since South Sudan gained its independence in 2011.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: South Sudanese wrestlers keep cattle safe<\/p>\n
The violence has seen villages destroyed, women abducted and lives lost.<\/p>\n
“Our children are being killed,” Rebeca Apien, a villager, told Al Jazeera. “We used to live in cattle camps with our children but now we’re losing them because of the raids.”<\/p>\n
With a population estimated to be more than the number of civilians in the country, cows are considered a walking wealth, especially among herding communities. <\/p>\n
Organisations expect the raids to increase with the approach of the dry season.<\/p>\n
The government says it is trying to stop the violence, but acknowledges that it is struggling.<\/p>\n
Since most of the cattle communities are located in remote areas, interventions are often hindered by access and the threat of firearms. <\/p>\n
“The number of firearms being owned by the communities or the civilians is more than the number of firearms we have,” Major General Nichola Dimo, Rumbek police commissioner, said.<\/p>\n
“There are a lot of youth armed, well-armed. A single police or two squads cannot handle the issue.”<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Government struggling to reign in violence in remote areas, facing raiders armed with guns and machetes.} Rumbek – For centuries, cattle raiding has been a problem among pastoralist communities in South Sudan. And years of conflict have made the stealing raids even more dangerous, with young raiders using guns and machetes. Local organisations say more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32349"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32349"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}