At least one person has been killed and four others wounded in renewed fighting at the border point of Nadapal.

The incident was reported by a member of parliament representing Kapoeta East County in the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly during a parliamentary sitting yesterday.

Angelo Lokinga Lotabo said a young boy, around 12 years old, was killed and four others injured in the fresh clashes. He added that the survivors were taken to Kapoeta Civil Hospital.

“On Saturday, the armed Turkana came and attacked people within Nadapal town and injured one. “They [others] are in critical condition and their lives now are 50-50; we are not sure,” he said.

Claims of incitement

Lokingo claimed that the repeated offensive by armed Turkana people inside the town of Nadapal was politically motivated on the part of the Kenyan government.

“This series of attacks appears to be politically motivated from the Kenyan government’s other side, because what is the grassroots information?”Those who are doing all these activities, are the people who are called “Kenya Police Reservists.”

The lawmaker urged the government to deploy military forces at the border to safeguard civilians until a border demarcation is completed to end the border conflict between the communities living on the border of the two countries.

“It is embarrassing and disappointing for the government of South Sudan to see these people being butchered or killed within the town. So what is the mission of the army? ” he said.

Nathanial Oyet, the First Deputy Speaker, confirmed the attack in Nadapal and said similar issues exist in the Kidepo area in a place called Moyosukun, Seritenya in Ikotos County, Ngomoromo in Magwi County, and the same conditions in Nimule and across the river in Kajo Keji County.

 “I am also pitied by the situation in Nadapal. I have been provided with horrendous pictures of deaths [and] injuries resulting from the attack along that border,” he said.

“This information is very important and I urge the honourable member to also put it in writing so that we can have it considered in the order of our business. These are matters of national importance and national interest, ” Oyet said.

Kenyan and South Sudanese officials signed a peace memorandum of understanding in October 2021, agreeing to increase security near the Nadapal border to protect road builders.

Decades of violence between two cattle-raising communities—the Turkana of Kenya and the Toposa of South Sudan—has resulted in border insecurity.

In August, the two tribes clashed near the Turkana cattle camp on Mogila Mountain, where the Toposa herders graze their cattle.

The fighting that sparked fear along the border was blamed on an inter-communal conflict that erupted between the two villages, killing two individuals.