At least four women were shot dead along the Camp 15-Kimotong road in Budi County, Eastern Equatoria State on Sunday.
A local government official who spoke to Radio Tamazuj attributed the killings to what they termed as cyclic revenge attacks between the two communities of the Buya and Toposa.
The secretary-general of greater Kapoeta, David Eriga, said,” Yes, along the same road four women were killed. Up to now, the killers are not known. But some five days ago, in the Machi 2 area, three children aged between 10 and 15 were killed innocently and among them were two girls and one boy and a fourth was wounded. To me, I believe that was revenge.”
Eriga however qualified that it is still early to judge where the attackers originated but said he suspects the neighboring Toposa of the Machi area whose children were killed recently.
“It is still early to judge who is who but they are neighbors to the Toposa of Machi. The Buya and Toposa are neighbors and maybe the relatives of the three children killed could be the ones who might have done that,” Eriga added.
The Budi County Commissioner, Akileo Mboya Peter, confirmed the incident and opined that it was a revenge attack by suspected Toposa youth.
"It is true that this incident took place, the killing of the women between Camp-15 and Kimotong where that incident happened and it amounts to a revenge killing. That was a revenge killing,” Commissioner Mboya said. “The suspects were from Toposa. The Toposa came and took revenge in the Buya area. Before that, some criminal youth group from Buya went and shot four children from Toposa, killing three. That resulted in the youth of Toposa following and shooting a police officer who was traveling and now that has resulted in the shooting of those women. That is a kind of revenge killing.”
Mboya condemned the incident and called on the youth of the Buya and Toposa to come to a consensus and live in harmony. He said the government will embark on sensitizing the youth to stop unnecessary killings.
“It is a revenge killing and what we will do as a Government is to continue engaging our people, sensitizing our youth to stop these unnecessary killings of women and children. The killing between Buya and Toposa is very bad. We condemn it seriously because it does not help,” Mboya said.
The four women whose names have not been revealed by the authorities were brutally killed near a place where a policeman was murdered last week. Police corporal, Peter Lonyia, was killed along the same road while delivering the salaries of his colleagues in Kimotong, having paid those in Camp-15.
Budi County has witnessed several murders in the recent past. Last Sunday, a health worker, Peter Lokuju John, was killed by unidentified people in Chukudum.