An armed group calling itself the ‘South Sudan Armed Forces’ has claimed its forces have overrun a military outpost belonging to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in a village in Eastern Equatora State over the weekend.
The fighters of the group occupied the area of the Longiro base on Sunday, according to a leader identifying himself as Colonel Mario Bertino.
The incident comes after the same group last week announced that they took over a police post in Idolu area, suggesting a pattern whereby the group seeks to assert their presence in the area and to draw attention from the local population and put pressure on the state government.
Bertino claimed their forces overran “six outposts near the base” and drove government security forces from nearby villages, putting the group in effective control of Longiro.
A local administrative officer said on Monday that the group killed three government soldiers at the base and has freed some civilians and the military base remains under their control.
Colonel Bertino said they seized some ammunition, rocket launchers and machine guns from the army base. The opposition commander said they were acting in “self-defense” after the government sent troops from Torit to attack them.
“The problem was that the government sent soldiers to attack us in our area… we repulsed them up to Idolu and captured three soldiers – we did not kill them, we captured them with their weapons. We are now controlling Idolu area,” he told Radio Tamazuj today.