Payment of high bride prices during marriages has become a major trigger of cattle rustling in Terekeka, state officials say.

“Most parents tend to impose a high bride price on the marriage of their daughters because they consider girls as their prime source of wealth,” said Victor Lado Modi, Commissioner of Gwor County, one of the eight counties in Terekeka State.

Mr. Modi was speaking to an UNMISS team visiting the area. He said that the minimum number of cattle acceptable in any Mundari traditional marriage is 45.

“You can see that this number is huge. As a consequence, the poor resort to cattle raids to meet the marriage demand”, Modi explained.

The Paramount Chief of Terekeka County, Alphonse Modi Lado, said that any rivalry over a girl will trigger a competitive auction, thus raising the bride price and making matters worse.

Sometimes when a girl becomes pregnant, Chief Lado said, the youth from the girl’s side raid the cattle camps from the boy’s side. That’s an unfortunate choice of action that often leads to fighting. 

“Marriage should be viewed as a social bond between two families, not as a divisive factor,” he said.

Mr. Lado said that poverty is partly to blame for the youth indulging in the occasional spot of cattle rustling.

“Some youth are orphans as the result of the ongoing conflict, and so they resort to cattle rustling as a shortcut to gain wealth,” he said.

He added that although cattle are meant primarily for life sustainability, the current surge in cattle-related crimes is indicative of a dramatic and negative turn of events.

Commissioner Modi believes that combating this criminality requires hard work to sensitize people to better understand the benefits of keeping cattle, including retaining the animals to sustain their livelihoods.

 “There are good ways to follow on how to get the cattle, how to sell them, how to get married with them, and how to save them in order to boost the domestic economy of the area.”