Cultural practices and state weaknesses are driving kidnappings in South Sudan and Ethiopia

An estimated ten thousand cattle thieves attacked a community in East equatoria on 23 April, in which 32 people died, 16,000 cattle from shepherds were stolen-and more than 100 women and children were abducted.

The kidnapping of women and children during cattle raids is quite common along the South Sudan-Ethiopia border. The number of kidnappings there has increased dramatically since 2014 due to the civil war in South Sudan and later in Ethiopia. Le Monde estimates that there were more than 9,000 women, boys and girls in captivity along the border in 2022.

Alan Juma, a teacher in the Greater Pibor administrative area, said the kidnapped women and children are being herded along with livestock to the South Sudan-Ethiopia border. Once there, he claims that they are either immediately sold to rich households that children need or as extra women to local rich households. In both cases, this often condemns them to a lifetime of servitude.

Young men experience a sense of heroism when they invade enemy territory and take livestock, women and children by force

Tasew Gashaw, a researcher at the Wilson Center, points to the Murle, Dinka and Toposa communities – transhumanist pastoral groups located across the border between South Sudan and Ethiopia – as key actors in the abduction of women and children while cattle rustle .

This practice is culturally accepted among shepherd groups across the border between South Sudan and Ethiopia and is caused by various factors. One of these is the wish of the Murles to expand their population-which makes less than 1% of the national population of both Ethiopia and South Sudan. Kidnapping provides a means of ‘forcible adoption’ of children, especially by Murle families without sons.

Child kidnapping is also motivated by the need to pay dowries for brides. Juma says young men kidnap children from rival communities and sell them in exchange for cattle to pay for the bride’s wealth. The kidnappings also give young men a sense of heroism by invading enemy territory and violently taking livestock, women and children.

The cross-border network consists of warriors who carry out the raids and community elders who bless the raids and profit from the sale of livestock and abductees. Arms dealers are involved in the sale of the weapons and ammunition used in the raids. Brokers at the border connect the kidnappers with members of other communities who buy up abductees.

It is estimated that one child can sell at least 20 cows, which amounts to $7,000.

The town of Akobo in South Sudan, on the Ethiopian border, is reportedly where most kidnapped women and children are sold. It is estimated that one child can sell at least 20 cows, the equivalent of $7,000. In Akobo, the sale of children is described as a livelihood option. Once sold in exchange for livestock, kidnapped children often face sexual exploitation, forced labor, child marriage and slavery.

Akobo, South Sudan, where most women and children have been abducted have reportedly been sold