1 dead, 2 injured in Eastern Equatoria ambush

JUBA – A deadly road ambush in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state has left at least one person dead and two others injured, local authorities say.

The deadly attack, state authorities say, followed cynical violence between local communities who they the authorities accused of laying ambushes against each other.

“One person from Lalanga was killed along the road between Idolu and Haforiere in a place called Kasara Benzin while he was riding a motorcycle and his motorcycle was taken,” Galileo Ohide, the paramount chief of Hiyala Payam said, according to Radio Tamazuj.

“This happened when the youth of Hiyala staged a roadblock between Tirangore and Hiyala and the people of Haforiere also set up a roadblock between Tirangore and Haforiere in Idolu. At the roadblocks, the warring youths stop cars and motorcycles to check for people from the rival community,” he added.

For his part, the commissioner of Torit County, Jacob Atari Albano, confirmed the incident and said he has given directives to local authorities in order to apprehend the feuding groups.

“This (ambush) incident happened yesterday (Friday) at around 1 pm according to the report from those who were injured. They said they were coming from Lalanga to Torit and on reaching the Haforiere Junction, they met people who started shooting at them, killing one person instantly and injuring two others,” he said.

“The injured identified as Okiki Omer and Wilson Kamau, are currently in Torit State Hospital for medication. Okong Patricio was shot dead. I authorized the Monyio-miji of Haforiere to apprehend the criminals before the government takes action because the ambush happened in their territory and they are the prime suspects,” Commissioner Atari added.

Radio Tamazuj also was told by a local doctor that one of the injured victims was recovering well but that the other was being referred to Juba Teaching Hospital for an X-ray.

“One was shot in the right hand his humerus is broken completely but he is stable and the other one was shot in the left hand and has tissue damage,” he explained.

“Both of them are in good condition but we are only sending the one with a broken bone to Juba because we do not have an X-ray machine here in Torit.”