A group of unidentified armed men on Monday morning attacked the SPLA-IO cantonment site of Lowereng in Kapoeta South County in Eastern Equatoria State killing five soldiers and burning the facility down, the deputy military spokesperson of the outfit said.
Among the SPLA-IO soldiers killed were the commander of the Lowareng cantonment site, a brigadier, his deputy, a colonel, and the other were privates.
The SPLA-IO deputy military spokesperson, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, told Radio Tamazuj today that it is not yet clear who attacked their forces.
“We don’t know who attacked, but a force came and attacked, burnt houses, and killed five of us,” Col. Paul Lam said. “One of them, a brigadier responsible for the cantonment, died and a woman has also been killed plus three other soldiers so this is what happened and it is not good because we are now in the program of peace.”
“People should have not killed themselves. What pains me a lot is that Eastern Equatoria is a cold place and it has had no problems. Since the implementation of this agreement, we did not hear that there is a problem between SSPDF and IO or between SSOA and IO. Even with civilians, nothing,” he added.
He urged the Joint Defense Board (JDB) to expeditiously form a committee to investigate the matter on the ground and find out who is responsible for the attack.
Col. Lam said the SPLA-IO is for peace and will not attempt to do any revenge for what happened and he called on citizens to be calm as investigations go on to ascertain those responsible for the attack.
Radio Tamazuj reached out to SSPDF spokesperson, Brig. Santo Domic, but he said he had no information about the attack
Maj. Gen. Marko Lokidor Lochapio, a leading member of the SPLM/A-IO and minister of peacebuilding in Eastern Equatoria State, confirmed the attack and said, “We found that the cantonment site was burnt and there are people killed there and up to now we have not known who did this but we are still investigating the situation.”
He said his ministry is working to reconcile the people of Eastern Equatoria State.
“We in Eastern Equatoria State ministry of peacebuilding are working on the issue of peace and our mandate is to preach peace to our people and bring reconciliation between the people of Eastern Equatoria State. We are people of peace and not for chaos. We are now working for peace and even with this current incident, we say no to war. The law will take its course,” Gen. Lokidor said.
Col. Dominic Odemi, the administrator of the Area Joint Military Ceasefire Committee (AJMCC) in Eastern Equatoria State, said all the surviving soldiers have been evacuated after the surprise attack.
“The cantonment was attacked yesterday morning at 5 am and when I sent my team to the ground, they found exactly it was true. The store was even burnt with some RPGs that were stored in there plus some guns,” Col. Odemi said. “Five soldiers were killed including the commander for DDR plus his deputy and three other soldiers. We are asking who attacked but there is no clear information.”
He said the AJMCC will have to investigate the matter before the soldiers return to the cantonment site but insinuated that they have a challenge of mobility.
The partners in the September 2018 peace agreement are yet to unify and deploy armed forces. The unity government says it is financially constrained to complete the implementation of the security arrangements that include training and unification of both government and opposition soldiers.
The formation of a unified army in South Sudan is a cornerstone of the peace agreement.