A section of community leaders and the mayor of Wau Municipal Council in Wau Town of Western Bahr el Ghazal State on Wednesday rated last week’s disbarment exercise at 60 percent.
According to several residents, information about the exercise was leaked two weeks before, allowing illegal gun owners to hide them, and also that most houses were not searched by the security forces.
Some residents and local leaders in WAu Town told Radio Tamazuj that the security forces involved in the exercise were deployed early in the morning and this warned those in possession of illegal arms.
Sheikh Alamin Imam Turjuman, one of the community leaders in Wau’s Hai Kosti suburb said that the general security check was good but that there were few police women among the forces checking.
“The search rate was very low and I estimate it at 60 percent. We were expecting a speedy disarmament drive. Also, the number of the soldiers was very low and there were very few female soldiers,” he said. “If there is a search, it should be very quick, done at night or dawn, and there should be no movement within residential areas.”
Another resident, Khamis Suleiman Khamis Suleiman, applauded the exercise saying it is a sign that the government was implementing the 2018 peace agreement.
“The security check should have been done secretly by joint forces from different departments but the number of forces was small during the exercise,” he stated.
All the community leaders concurred that the disarmament exercise is important to ensure the safety of civilians but said information of when it will happen should be kept secret to avoid people hiding weapons. They urged citizens to cooperate with the security forces.
For his part, Wau Town Mayor Paulino Said Uku said that the security personnel check every house except the homes of constitutional post holders which require special authorization.
“The search for illegal guns should be for all households because even grass-thatched houses might be containing guns,” said Uku.
He said that more female security personnel will be deployed next time there is a disarmament exercise or security check.
“There should be an additional number of female troops during the next search so that they can search women,” the mayor stated.
Last week, 130 weapons of different kinds were recovered in a house-to-house search by security forces.