Grenade attack leaves 2 children dead, 34 injured in Aweil West

JUBA – Two children were killed and 34 people injured when a soldier from the wounded heroes unit lobbed a grenade at partygoers in the wee hours of Saturday in Mariem West Payam in Aweil West County, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, local officials said, Radio Tamazuj reports.

16 of the injured are children between 11 and 16 years of age.

The state’s police spokesman, Captain Guot Guot Akol, told Radio Tamazuj on Saturday that the incident happened when a group of locals held a trans night party.

“According to the information we received from there, there was one personnel from the wounded heroes who exploded the bomb (grenade) while he was drunk,” Capt. Guot said. “34 people, including two police officers, were badly wounded and two small children have passed on.”

According to sources, the attacker has not yet been arrested but security operatives said they were monitoring him closely.

The Aweil West County commissioner, Chok Dut Chok, confirmed the attack but said the revelers initially reported that it was a generator that had exploded.

“The people were dancing at a party at night and the information I got from them (locals) was that a generator had burst (sic),” Commissioner Dut said. “They did not report officially that it was a hand grenade.”

A medical worker at the local health facility who preferred anonymity said that they first received about six patients in the early hours of Saturday morning but that the number of the patients injured in the attack kept increasing in the admission wards.

“When I came this morning (Saturday), there were six wounded people but now we have a big number in the admission wards,” the health worker said.