The South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS) has said they apprehended more than 500 youths suspected to be affiliated with different gangs in the suburbs of Juba City during operations and crackdowns before and during the recent festive season.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, the SSNPS spokesperson, Major General Daniel Justin, said the gang members, locally referred to as niggers, were robbing and causing insecurity in the city.
“Generally, the celebration was peaceful except for some few bad elements who wanted to cause insecurity issues to the public during the Christmas and New Year celebrations but our officers mandated to provide security managed to arrest more than 500 ‘niggers’ mostly belonging to the group called Toronto boys,” he said. “We carried out our investigations process and interrogations and now we are taking the suspects to court to face charges.”
The police mouthpiece added that two officers from the joint operations sector were arrested after being accused by the community of beating a young man to death and are now under investigation.
“There was a report of a young man who had caused some problems in the community and he ran to the joint operations sector for safety because the villagers wanted to beat him up,” he explained. “On his way, he fell and started vomiting blood and died but as we speak, two police officers are in custody for questioning.”
However, in an earlier report, Gen. Justin claimed that the deceased collapsed on the way to the joint operations station because he was drunk.