The body of one of the youths abducted during an attack in Dabur village, Lowoi Payam of Eastern Equatoria’s Torit County last week was found on Friday, officials confirmed.
Residents and officials in Lowoi Payam reported that hundreds of armed men in uniform attacked their village on 30th January 2022, burnt the village to ashes, and abducted three young men.
Emmanuel Justine, Lokoya community leader told Radio Tamazuj that two of the abducted boys managed to escape and return to the village, while one, Loholong Boyoi, was still missing.
“From the three people who were abducted, one of them came and told us the truth that truly they were three and they ran in different ways. So the two appeared but one did not appear until Friday,” Justine explained. “While going back to Magwi, the Lokoya youth who were searching for him, they found the body of the boy who was still missing, he was dead and his body rotten.”
Justine lamented the growing insecurity in the area and called for a peaceful resolution to conflicts there.
“As a chairperson of the community, I am not happy because if such continues there will be no stability and no peace. Our people are peaceful, they don’t want any problem with anybody so they want peace but some people just come to search for problems,” he added.
Lowoi payam youth leader John Oyom said the attack displaced more than 100 people who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
“The displaced who came were over 100. We have people who own cattle and soldiers at the barrack who came to support cattle keepers. They came together to chase people thereafter they killed one of the men whom we carried from there. They are now patrolling the area and on Wednesday they shot and killed a man who was burning charcoal to sell to feed his children,” Oyom said.
He adds, “First of all I request that the children who are suffering now, they ran from there should be helped. Then, the government should try to resolve the matter because people are now suffering as their village is burned to ashes and they have nothing to support themselves, the area is now deserted.”
Jokomina Chelsio Selvino women leader in Lowoi urged the cattle keepers whom she accuses of carrying out the attack should seek peaceful means of resolving conflict with the natives of the area.
“If there is a problem between the Lokoya community and the Dinka Bor community, the government should not be involved. There is a military barracks at Kos-Mangat and if the soldiers at the barrack are the ones coming to attack civilians then we need this Kos-Mangat barracks to be checked,” she urged.
Meanwhile, the state information minister and government spokesperson Patrick Oting Cyprian said the government has formed a committee to investigate the incident.
“We have formed a committee in the state here to go on the ground to look into the issue then they will bring for us the feedback on what happened. The reason we sent the committee is that we receive different information regarding the matter,” he said.
Oting said the state government condemns the attack and is working to resolve the matter.