Two children abducted along the Torit-Juba road in 2017 have been received by authorities in South Sudan’s Torit State.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Torit State governor, Tobiolo Alberio Oromo thanked his Boma State counterpart for working hard to ensure that the two formerly abducted children returned safely.
“This evening [Thursday], we received two abducted children from our coordinator who received them yesterday [Wednesday] from the government of Boma State. These children have arrived safely in Torit. There are two children one girl and one boy,” said Oromo.
The girl is 5 years old and the boy is two and a half years, he added.
The two children, he explained, were abducted in 2017 from Jebel Mulak, an area in Lokiliri County of South Sudan’s Jubek state as they travelled with their mothers from South Sudan’s capital, Juba to Torit.
Abductors from Boma State are said to have kidnapped the duo.
“The government of Torit State and the government of Boma State had been coordinating on how these children will be recovered. I want to thank my brother David Yau Yau, the governor of Boma for his commitment to bring peace to neighboring states,” said Oromo.
He said his government is now crosschecking police records for children abducted in 2017, due to difficulties in identifying parents.
He urged guardians whose children were abducted from Jebel Mulak in Jubek state in 2017 to go and identify the ones rescued.
“We are very happy we have received these children. The challenge now is the language. These children have forgotten their language. They are only speaking the Murle language,” said Oromo.
“As government, we are now crosschecking our records of 2017 in the police. This is how we shall identify the parents or relatives after a case was opened in police after the abduction in 2017,” he added.
Oromo said the two children are under his government’s protection.