Two people, a motorcycle taxi (boda-boda) rider and his passenger, were gunned down along Ramula-Ikotos Road in Eastern Equatoria State’s Ikotos County after they met cattle rustlers on Monday evening.
A group of armed people raided over 20 head of cattle from Madwany village before killing the duo, officials said.
Joseph Odongi, the paramount chief in Ikotos County told Radio Tamazuj Tuesday that the deceased were aged 25 and 28 respectively but that the situation on the ground was calm.
“Ikotos is good except for the incident that happened on Monday in the Ramula area where cattle raiders stole cattle from Madwany and later killed some two boys who were riding from Lodurumo,” he said. “They boys met the raiders who killed them on the spot. On Tuesday we went and picked the dead bodies and took them to their area in Chorokol center.”
According to the chief, local youths are tracing and following the tracks of the raiders.
For his part, the Ikotos County Timon Lolori said he was briefed about the killings despite being away in CDahari Payam to cool tensions.
“It was me who informed the people who remained in the county hence the executive director rushed and found the two dead bodies. The perpetrators met these boys after raiding 20 milking cows from homes in Madwany in Ramula,” he stated. “At the moment, the population has mixed feelings as they wait for the youth who went to trace the footmarks of the rustlers.”
The commissioner said the county has no transportation to quickly respond to crimes and reach crime scenes.
Meanwhile, Alphonse Muras Chacha, an SPLM Party legislator who represents Ikotos in the state parliament, expressed shock about the killings.
“This is very strange because cattle raids and road ambushes had stopped since last year in October. This is not good and people should stop killing and raiding because it is backwardness and we cannot entertain these kinds of things,” he emphasized. “Even the raiders should know that what they are doing is not good. I condemn completely.”
Over the weekend, a cattle herder was killed in Cahari leading to tensions in the area but county authorities said they intervened and the situation is now calm.