The families of at least 36 people arrested after violence in Western Equatoria’s Maridi county stormed the offices of the local commissioner demanding to know their missing relatives’ whereabouts.
“Their parents, relatives, wives, and sons came to me this morning, about 67 of them demanding to know where their sons are now, and that defeating my understanding because I can’t tell them now where those boys are now,” commissioner Wilson Thomas Yangi told Radio Miraya.
He said some of the relatives threatened to go to Juba and meet the national government to demand answers.
Yangi separately confirmed the protest to Radio Tamazuj.
The exact number of detained Western Equatoria citizens is not clear. Local authorities and legislators representing both Maridi and Mundri West counties have put the number above 50.
The people were arrested following clashes between citizens and local militia and an SPLA commando unit from Greater Bahr el Ghazal region said to be under command of General Bol Akol, a close military ally of President Salva Kiir.
Two weeks ago, the Maridi commissioner made a public appeal to the national government to release the detainees, as well as for the immediate withdrawal of the SPLA commando unit.