Besides the two major attacks earlier reported in Raja County since 15 January, including an ambush of SPLA vehicles and an ambush of a convoy that included four or five journalists, several fishermen have also been killed in hitherto unreported violence.
One attack took place in the Sopo area, which lies along the road from Raja to Deim Zubeir and Wau. Journalists and the county commissioner who were ambushed yesterday were reportedly traveling back to Raja after visiting the area of this earlier attack.
Speaking to press in Wau yesterday, Governor Rizig Hassan Zacharia said that a fisherman was shot dead and another managed to escape from an unknown armed group at Sopo area on 21 January.
Rizig said the fisherman who survived the attack informed the local authorities on the incident but so far they were not ready to give a positive identification of the group.
The governor also accused the same group of killing another four fishermen at Dolo area in a separate attack. The top state official pointed out that the killing of at least four fishermen took place when a criminal group held about 12 fishermen hostages.
Six among them were later released. Rizig indicated that the six released fishermen went and informed the relevant authorities on what had happened. He added that the authorities found that four fishermen were killed and another two went missing.
Although some media in Juba are speculating that the attack on the commissioner’s convoy yesterday was carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the governor speaking in Wau did not blame LRA.