President Kiir of South Sudan

Twenty-seven people have been killed and five children abducted in separate cattle raids in South Sudan, local official, James Mawein said on Friday.

Thursday night fighting between two ethnic clans in Lakes state in central South Sudan saw 27 killed and 20 wounded, Mawein said.

Mawein said that machine guns and AK-47s were used in the raid, which saw women, children and the elderly among the victims.

In another cattle raid in troubled Jonglei state the same day, five children were abducted, Akec Dengdi, the State Minister for Information, said.

“We have lost five children aged between 6 and 11 to the suspected … cattle raiders,” Dengdi said.

Cattle raiding have occurred for centuries in South Sudan, and attacks often have an ethnic dimension.

Children are sometimes also abducted during raids to be used for domestic labour.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in South Sudan since a split between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar escalated into a military conflict in December 2013.