At least five people were abducted and their village burnt to ashes by unknown gunmen on Sunday in Torit County of South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state.
According to local authorities and residents, tens of armed men in military uniform attacked the Dabur Village of Lowoi Payam in Torit County at 6 pm and started threatening residents.
Chief Marino Taban of the Kudo area told Radio Tamazuj that three of those abducted were later released but two people are still missing.
“The whole village of Dabur in Lowoi is burnt to the ground but we did not count the houses. They abducted five people, three are from Acholi, they were released. The other two are from Lowoi and their whereabouts are not known up to now.”
He explains, “Last year, the people of Lowoi clashed with the community from Jonglei State who are in the cattle camp there and that is why they organized a force to come and burn Dabur, however, nobody was killed.”
Gudio Omiji, an eyewitness said the people of Dabur have now been displaced to the mountains and need food and water.
“The people have all run away, they are scattered in the bush, people are suffering in the bush. Even those who used to cut bamboo have all evacuated the village. The village is indeed burnt. We are not sure if those who are abducted are still alive or dead,” Omiji feared.
The police investigator in Kor-English, Line Corporal Atilio Albano, confirmed the incident but said they could not immediately intervene due to transportation challenges.
“The challenge we are facing is the issue of fuel because the place where the incident happened vehicles cannot reach there. We are supposed to reach the scene to confirm but we waited there is a boy we sent to Torit to get us fuel but up to now he has not come,” he said. “We always hire motorbikes for us to assess how the incident happened but according to the civilians they say it’s the government forces who burned their village.”
The state security advisor Mathew Tombe Nehemia said security forces will ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.
“We condemn that attack, we the government are working hard to investigate that attack and find out the criminals so that we can bring them to justice. Let the communities stay calm,” Tombe appealed.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Justine the chairperson of the Lokoya community in Torit expresses his dismay at the incident and called on the government to urgently intervene.
Last week Magwi County authorities warned of possible insecurity in the area following the influx of cattle in the state.
Radio Tamazuj made several attempts to reach cattle keepers for comment but were out of reach.