Yakani welcomes army investigation of Mayom killing, Yei SSPDF officer’s torture to death

JUBA – South Sudan’s outspoken Activist Edmund Yakani has welcomed the decision by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) to investigate the torture to death of senior army officer in Yei River County and the extrajudicial killing of opposition commanders in Mayom County of Unity State.

Last week, a family member told Sudans Post that Lt. Col Yuma Sebastian who was deployed to Kapoeta County in Eastern Equatoria state and was on a family visit to Yei when he was arrested by the army military police and tortured to death at an army detention cell.

The Yei County Commissioner Aggrey Cyrus Kanyikwa, confirmed Lt. Col Yuma’s demise at the hand of the army and said he was arrested because he had left his area of deployment in Kapoeta of Western Equatoria state without permission from his superior.

Yesterday, the army said that it is investigating his death.

The army also said it has launched an investigation into the widely opposed execution of four opposition officers to death in Mayom County of Unity State who are accused of allegedly standing behind the attack on Mayom in mid-July that resulted in the killing of Mayom County Commissioner.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Thursday, Yakani who is the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) welcomed the decision of the army to investigate these two incidents of killing and said it is a response to the CEPO’s recent call in which it urged the army to rein.

“CEPO welcomes the decision of the SSPDF leadership in Juba for taking primary responsibility to investigate the inhuman torture of SSPDF senior up to death,” Yakani told Sudans Post in the capital Juba.

“This is positive response to our call for SSPDF chief of staff to take genuine task to investigate the torture to death of Lt. Col. Yuma in Yei. The act for murdering Yuma is totally criminal offense and punishable without any excuse,” he added.

Yakani also added that the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization “appreciate the urgent work done on Mayom extra-judicial killing in Mayom County. The top leadership should take stronger measures over these two cases.”

However, the outspoken activist raised red light over the tradition of leaving investigation unfulfilled and pointed to the investigation into this year’s sectional clash between the Ngok-Dinka and their Twic Dinka counterparts in which several people were killed and investigation that was launched has never achieved anything.

“It has normally been seen that reports of such investigations are done and then they’ve been abandoned or not taken seriously for making decisions to handling the perpetrators. We have seen with the case of Twic Dinka-Ngok Dinka violence, Kajokeji criminal act, Nimule violence and other examples across the country,” he added.

He appealed to “the leadership of the country to act on investigating reports of violence and criminal offenses” and said his organization “views that undermining investigation report on deadly violence or criminal offense is clear demonstration of culture of impunity.”