Government soldiers have been admitted at Marialbai Hospital in Aweil West County and Aweil Teaching Hospital following fighting with an armed group in Raja in South Sudan’s northwest.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj last night, a wounded SPLA solider said they had heard rumors that there would be an attack on Raja in the days before it happened but they ignored the warnings.
He said that the group that attacked Raja was calling for separation of Raja from the new ‘Lol State’ and preferred to have their own independent state named “Raja”. President Salva Kiir had decreed that Raja County must be merged with Aweil West and North counties, a move that was criticized by tribal leaders in the Raja area.
Salva Kiir’s ‘Establishment Order’ creating Lol State and 27 other states in place of the constitutional ten states has been rejected by several armed groups in South Sudan, including the SPLM-IO, the Aguelek forces and, apparently, the group that attacked Raja yesterday.
The soldier recalled, “Since this morning around 5:40 they have attacked us and captured the area. We ran toward the state [headquarters] but there was fighting there as well. We tried to go in the direction of ‘the gate’ to see about gathering our colleagues but we found that they are also in fighting. We asked the employees who were running that they should leave us behind, we are wounded.”
“They took us with them and brought us to Marialbai hospital where I and my colleague received treatment.”
“Those forces are rebels from different tribes… The reason they attacked Raja is because they reject their area to be annexed to Lol State. They said they want their own state which is Raja. This is what we heard from some elderly people in the area,” added the wounded soldier.
Police in Aweil last night interfered with journalists attempting to interview more of the wounded soldiers. Health officials in the hospitals refused to give exact number of the wounded soldiers, saying that they will wait for official permission from security authorities.
Aweil State’s government is expected to visit the wounded today at the Aweil hospital.
File photo
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Fighting breaks out in Raja town (15 June)