A soldier belonging to the Internal Security Bureau (ISB) of the National Security Service (NSS) was on Sunday evening shot dead while a Sudanese road engineer was injured when their vehicle came under fire between Tuhubak and Lobira villages along Torit-Kapoeta Highway.
The deceased and injured who were traveling in the company of Eastern Equatoria State Director General of Roads and Bridges Engineer Norman Charles Gideon and other guards in a Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle were returning from assessing the road in preparation for the resumption of road works.
The construction of the Juba-Torit-Kapoeta-Nadapal Highway which links to Kenya was funded by the Government of South Sudan but stalled. However, the new assessment is said to have been approved by the World Bank according to officials.
Maj. Justin Kleopus Takuru, the police spokesperson in Eastern Equatoria State, told Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday that they received the complaint on Sunday at 8 p.m. and that it was reported by Engineer Charles, 69, who survived the attack.
“They were assessing the road in the Tuhubak area for the planning of the highway and when they reached between Tuhubak and Lobira, they were shot at with lots of bullets from the bush,” he said. “A Sudanese engineer was sitting in the front seat of the car called Mohamed Ismail Mohamed, 42, who was shot in the lower back and one soldier called Noel Louis Saturlino, 27, from Lokoya tribe was shot dead.”
Maj. Takuru added: “The engineer was brought and is currently admitted at Torit State Hospital where he was operated and his situation is not so bad.”
The police mouthpiece revealed that plans are underway to deploy more forces along hotspot areas to protect road construction workers and travelers. He urged people holding illegal weapons to allow work to proceed smoothly on the highway.
For his part, Chief Aurelio Jamus of Tuhubak Boma in Torit County confirmed the incident but blamed it on armed Buya youths from Budi County.
“That incident happened in Tuhubak but we went and traced the footmarks and we found that it was the same direction our stolen calves were taken, they went up to that side of Kideopo which is our border with the Buya,” the chief said.
Meanwhile, Oreste Lopara Simon, an SPLM-IO lawmaker in the National Legislature who represents Budi County, said he was saddened by the attack on people who are working to build the road to bring development.
“This is a very unfortunate incident and situation. People are always calling for development but others are creating threats and killing people. The communities have been left without rule of law and justice and this has allowed criminals to do what they want,” he said. “Local leaders and state and national parliamentarians should have conducted meetings with the communities along the highway to tell them that there is something or work going to take place on the road so that any activity is not interfered with. There is an urgent need to enlighten our people. The people constructing the road should not lose hope.”
Lopara said some politicians in Juba are against development in Eastern Equatoria State.