The police in Bentiu’s camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Unity State, with the help of community watch groups in the camp, on Sunday detained five suspected gang members from two rival groups.

According to the police, three of the suspects are from the Talent gang while the other two are from the Jamaica gang.

John Malith, the Unity State police spokesperson told Radio Tamazuj that the five suspects were apprehended over the weekend after they caused insecurity within the Bentiu IDP Camp.

“The police know that the gangs create insecurity in the community and if they want to fight, they should go somewhere and fight and we will arrest them from there but not within the community,” he said. “The arrest came after the police found them fighting which led to the two people from the Talent gang. The Jamaica and Talent gangs had declared that they were going to fight over this weekend. When we got this information, we had to take action against those criminals who created insecurity.”

“Two members from the Talent gang were injured in the fighting and they were taken to Bentiu IDP camp hospital for medical treatment,” Malith added.

He said the police want the residents of the camp to live in peace and free of fear of gangsters.

“No incident has been reported since the beginning of this year and this is the first. We arrested five people from the two groups after they caused insecurity in Bentiu IDP Camp in the evening hours of Sunday,” he stated. “The reason for the fighting was not clear and if they do not tell us the reason for their clashes, we are not going to release them very soon.”

According to Malith, initially, 17 suspects were detained but 12 were freed after investigations. He urged the camp’s community to report any cases of insecurity.