Three suspected highway robbers and cattle raiders were over the weekend killed near the Enyif residential area of Torit Town, Eastern Equatoria State, local authorities said.
The incident took place last Friday when a joint patrol of youth from Ifwotu, Himodonge, and SPLA-IO forces clashed with the group of suspected criminals south of the Enyif residential area.
On the same day, criminals attacked and robbed a motorcyclist along the Torit-Himodonge road of his belongings. This prompted the local youth to follow the footprints, ending in the gunfight that resulted in the killing of the suspects.
The commissioner of Torit County, Jacob Atari Albano, said the three deceased suspects were identified as youth who normally disrupt the peace in Haforiere village of Hiyalla Payam.
“Some criminals robbed somebody from Hillieu and the Monyiomiji of Hillieu and some monyiomiji from Ifwotu immediately rushed to ground and followed the footmarks,” Commissioner Atari explained. “They clashed with these criminals and killed three of them.”
Lt. Colonel Dominic Odemi, the chairperson of the Area Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee, confirmed the incident and called for dialogue between the three communities of Ifwotu, Himodonge, and Haforiere.
“The soldiers of SPLA-IO heard a gunshot and they rushed and cordoned off the place and these boys ran and fell in an ambush of the soldiers who shot at them and killed three people. After they were killed, we traced and discovered that the boys are from Haforiere,” Col. Odemi said. “I have called the youth leaders of Haforiere, Tirangore, Hiyala, Himodonge, and Ifwotu to come for dialogue.”
He added that what happened should not create tension.
For his part, the chief of Tirangore Boma in Hiyalla Payam, Sanabio Tiya, confirmed that the three-suspected criminals who were gunned down were from his village and said that they had been disturbing the peace of the people of Haforiere and its environs.
“These three boys have disturbed people a lot and have not been taking advice from their fathers. These boys were not killed for nothing, they were thieves,” Chief Tiya said. “I do not want anybody to question why they were killed because these are people who went to steal and they died for free. I want people to stay calm.”