The South Sudan, where a peace agreement was signed in 2018, is recovering painfully from a civil war that has taken six years more than 380 000 people dead.
At least 127 people have been killed in recent days in clashes between soldiers and young people of a local community in the north of South Sudan who refused to lend themselves to a disarmament operation, indicated Wednesday to the AFP the spokesperson of the army, Lul Ruai Koang.
“According to the latest figures that we have, I can confirm to you that the balance sheet amounts to 127 people dead. According to our information, 82 civilians have been killed in the clashes and 45 soldiers of the army of South Sudan,” said the spokesperson. The clashes started Saturday and have been conducted in Warrap State, which originates with president Salva Kiir.
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According to the spokesperson of the army, the armed young men of the community Gelweng, refusing to surrender their weapons in the framework of an operation led by the government, attacked a position of the army in an area called Romic.
in Addition to the victims, the clashes have been 32 wounded among the military and a number “that remains to be established” among the Gelweng, according to Koang, who said that the situation was returning to normal on-site and that the governmental forces were bent.
The spokesman added that “two military personnel involved in triggering the clashes had been arrested to be questioned” and that calls had been launched from the elders of the community Gelweng to help the authorities to apprehend three youths suspected to have launched the attack against the army.
inter-communal clashes
This area had already been rendered unstable by inter-communal clashes from the recent past. Many communities are armed by South Sudan, to guard against attacks, including raids of cattle thieves.
On August 6, two days before the launching of the disarmament operation in the region, a civil society organization, the action Network of the south sudan small arms, had warned the government against the consequences of disarmament without prior consultations with the communities.
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“We have seen in the past the government disarm civilians without any plan to protect them then. Shortly after, these communities had been the victims of the devastating attacks by criminals belonging to the neighbouring communities”, had warned in a press release Geoffrey Lou Duke, general secretary of the NGO. He had called on the government not to “repeat the mistakes of the past”.
The South Sudan, where a peace agreement was signed in 2018, is recovering painfully from a civil war that has taken six years more than 380 000 people and caused a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic. The president of south sudan, Salva Kiir, and the former chief of the main rebellion became the vice-president, Riek Machar, have formed in February of a national unity government.
The fighting between government forces and the main rebel groups have largely ceased after the signing of the peace agreement, but clashes with groups refractories always take place and inter-communal violence are commonplace.
