At least 17 people have been killed and 13 injured during clashes between gangs of livestock theft and farmers in South Sudan, a local official said on Thursday.
Western Lakes State spokesperson Marek Nanga Marik told German news agency by phone that armed men from the Manwer clan attacked a cattle barn belonging to the Jock clan near the town of Rumbek in the state in that troubled country, and stole about 80 cows, according to Marek.
Livestock thefts have occurred for centuries in that east African country, and raids often take on an ethnic character.