A 20-year-old woman has declined a marriage proposal from a suitor who presented 40 heads of cattle in South Sudan.
The woman’s family were angered by her decision to turn down the offer.
The suitor, Taban Abel, a state minister in Sudan, later revealed that the woman was killed in the town of Yirol in Eastern Lakes State by her brothers after declining the arranged proposal.
Taban,who is the Minister of Information in Eastern Lakes, said the family had attempted to coerce the woman to marry the man in vain.
The woman’s furious father reportedly ordered his sons to punish the defiant daughter.
“The father was one who ordered people to kill his daughter because she refused to get married,” Taban told Radio Tamazuj.
Terming the move barbaric, the minister has vowed to end the menace of arranged marriages in South Sudan communities.
“This is a barbaric act that needs immediate intervention from the government. This is the second incident of its kind because last year a girl was impregnated and then her father beat her to death,” he said.
South Sudan is one of the countries in Africa with a long history of under age marriages.
The communities exchange the girls with cows.
A United Nations report estimates that at least 40 percent of South Sudan girls are married before attaining the age of 18 years.