Two men were killed in a shootout Saturday when soldiers tried to disarm a man in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan.
Aweil East County Executive Director Kamilo Deng Tong said that a soldier name Deng Akot went to Panakoth area three miles from Aweil East capital Wanyjok in search of a man he thought had taken his wife.
The executive director said that Akot was unable to find the man and started threatening local people who then alerted the organized forces in Aweil East of the distrubance.
Deng Tong said that forces arrived and asked Akot to surrender his weapon. Akot then opened fire, killing a member of the fire brigade named as Majok Maluil. Akot was also killed in the shootout.
“Deng Akot was a soldier from Mathiang Anyor and Mathiang Anyor forces are not stable,” Deng Tong said. “He was from front line in Unity State for some time, but after he went home and found his wife was not at home, then he decided to look for the wife.”
“Unfortunately he was drunk and he could not reason well,” he added.
Aweil East director of protocol William Deng Awek confirmed that a deadly exchange of fire took place when forces tried to disarm Akot, but told a different story about what the offending soldier was doing.
“According to rumors, people said he was coming from Unity State but no one knows exactly, but he came to the market with the intention to loot,” Deng Awek said.
Deng Awek urged soldiers to leave their guns at military headquarters when they return from the frontlines to civilian areas.
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