New York, US - The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHE) has voiced concern over a cattle raid in a northern state of South Sudan earlier this week, which led to 78 deaths and numerous injuries among civilians, most of whom were women and children.

The human rights office spokesperson, Rupert Colville, in a statement on Saturday, said: “We call on all relevant authorities to ensure that urgent measures are taken to help secure the economic and social rights of those affected by the attack.'

He stated that the attack was reportedly carried out by men from the neighbouring Unity State.

Colville added that more than 70,000 cattle were looted during the attack.

'This is extremely worrying because an exclusively pastoralist economy means that around 40,000 people have now been left without a livelihood,” he said.

He also said those displaced by the attack, mostly members of the Luac Jang tribe, were now facing shortages of water, food, shelter and medicine.

Colville said details on the incident were still unclear as the attack occurred in a remote area of Warrap state, adding that OHCHR and the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) would continue investigations on the matter.

'Reports so far have stated that 78 people died, nine are missing and 72 were wounded in the attack.

'Most of the killing appears to have been inflicted with machetes, and it is believed to have involved people crossing over from neighbouring Unity state,' the statement said.

It further said: 'The attack appears to be unrelated to recent incidents in Jonglei state, where tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced in the past two months due to deadly clashes between the Lou Nuer and Murle ethnic communities'.

Pana 04/02/2012