Gunmen killed 49 people and wounded 33 others in a dawn raid on a seasonal cattle camp in South Sudan’s Warrap State, authorities have said.
The attack struck the Machar-Bakuek camp and the neighboring Mading Juer Boma settlement in Tonj North County’s Majak Payam area.
State spokesman William Wol Mium Bol blamed an “armed criminal network” for the assault and offered condolences to victims’ families.
He also urged restraint from communities seeking retaliation, warning against further bloodshed in the volatile region.
Local officials condemned the attack and appealed to humanitarian organizations to assist people displaced by the violence.
They described the situation as a humanitarian catastrophe stemming from conflict-driven displacement across the area.
The assault follows a similar raid three weeks earlier in the same district that killed 60 people and wounded 50.
The repeated violence points to escalating cattle-rustling conflicts and disputes over grazing land and water across South Sudan.
