At least 95 people were killed in ambushes on roads leading to South Sudan’s capital Juba from August until October, a spokesperson for the government said.
Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting on Friday, Michael Makuei, Minister of Information, said that the Council of Ministers was briefed on the security situation by ministers of defense, interior and national security.
“According to the report, since August, September up to October, about 95 people have lost their lives in all these roads, these are actions of terrorists, these are actions of people whose objective is not known,” said Makuei.
Makuei, who is also the government spokesman, said that the cabinet does not believe that the SPLM-IO faction was involved in the killing of civilians.”The SPLM-IO knows that there is an agreement and that preparations are underway for them to assemble in the cantonment areas, so these people in the opinion of the cabinet, these are not SPLM/A-IO, but these are terrorists,” he said.
The government official pointed out that they are working to provide basic services in the agreed cantonment sites in the Equatoria region. “So the four cantonment areas in the Equatoria region will soon be established, they have already been declared, but efforts are underway to make them fit for living,” he said.
“When they go there they will find that there is water, there is health and other facilities are there, so we hope that by early next month, the assembly areas will be equipped and all the forces would have been there” he added.