At least 35 people were killed and 46 injured in an attack on cattle camps in southeastern South Sudan last week, a community leader said on Sunday.
The assailants remain unidentified.
One of the primary causes of warfare between ethnic groups in the nation saturated with weaponry following decades of war is cattle raiding, which is linked to competing for limited resources, Reuters reported.
"On January 31, the Dinka Bor cattle camps were attacked," the leader, Mayom Ateny, told Reuters, providing information about the four camps that were targeted and the number of people killed or injured.
11,000 cattle heads were seized, he added.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by Elia John Ahaji, the communications minister of Eastern Equatoria state, which is home to Magwi county, or Olum Pole Pole Ataruk, the commissioner of the county where the attacks occurred.
In South Sudan, cattle, which can range in quantity from less than 10 to several hundred, are typically presented to a woman's family as a bride price and are a significant symbol of wealth and prestige.
The chief of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Nicholas Haysom, voiced alarm over the rising violence in Eastern Equatoria between farming people and cattle ranchers.
"Such attacks and counter-attacks must stop," Haysom said in a statement denouncing the fighting and advising everyone to exercise moderation.
While the main belligerents have now been at peace, armed factions continue to conflict in South Sudan, where a civil war raged from 2013 to 2018 and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
