Insecurity is forcing cattle herders to change their usual migration routes in South Sudan, exposing cattle to deadly insect-borne diseases.
The alert comes from a report from the Director-General of Agriculture in Warrap State disclosing that around ten per cent of the cattle are dying as a result of disease.Herders from Tonj East County, in Warrap, and Rumbek North County, in Lakes State, used to move their cattle to Unity State in search of pasture and water.
This year, due to insecurity in Unity, herders follow a long trek with some 100,000 heads of cattle in the opposite direction to Western Bahr el Ghazal and Western Equatoria states.
Western Bahr el Ghazal and Western Equatoria forests are infested with flies that infect the cattle with deadly diseases.