At least four people, including two pregnant women, were killed in an attack by unidentified armed men along the Camp 15-Napak road in Budi County of South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State.
The incident happened last Wednesday when the victims– three women and a man–were on their way from Camp 15 to Thuguro Boma. Last week, a commercial vehicle was also attacked along the same road.
Lokolimoi Arkangelo, the Kimotong payam administrator, told Radio Tamazuj that local youth are following the footmarks of the suspects, calling on the government to send security forces to the scene of the incident.
He pointed out there was another attack on Thursday along the same area where a boda-boda rider was shot in the leg.
“There was another group on a motorcycle to Kimotong from Camp 15, and the same criminals shot one of them in his leg, and the youth are still following their footmarks. The government should apprehend these kinds of people,” he said.
Oreste Lopara, a member of the national assembly representing the area, also confirmed the incident and attributed it to revenge killings.
“That was a miserable situation. These people just came from Camp 15 going back to Kimotong, and these are women in Thuguro. Just on the way, they met the criminals, and all of them were shot and killed. It is becoming too much, the situation is not so welcoming, and it is a total threat affecting local development. I think this is due to revenge,” he explained.
Reacting to the incident, Hellen Teteyo, a female activist and executive director for Rural Initiative for Peace and Development Organization (RIPDO) in Eastern Equatoria State, condemned the incident.
She called on the government and humanitarian agencies to intervene by investigating the deadly attack and hold perpetrators accountable.
“This incident has broken all hearts of many women in Eastern Equatoria and across the country. When women are the ones who are killed, it shows that there is wickedness; this shows that we don’t have mercy and pity for our mothers and sisters. The Ministry of Peacebuilding, the Ministry of Gender, and the UN agencies have to intervene because this is a serious warning,” she stressed.