Western Equatoria: Arrow Boys Head applauds victory over LRA fighters Article Comments (2) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Richard Ruati June 19, 2011 (YAMBIO) – The leader of a local militia which have have been protecting civilians under attack from insurgents in Western Equatoria state (WES) of South Sudan on Sunday described their work as a “great achievement” in light of recent attakcs. Arrow Boys display amputated hand of LRA fighter killed during Gangura clashes (ST) The Arrow Boys are citizens who took up various arms, traditional and modern, against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – a group, originally from north Ugandan, which has been looting, mutilating, raping, abducting and murdering throughout the region for many years. Attempts to bring its leader, Joseph Kony; who is wanted for war crimes, to justice, have thus far failed. At 12 pm on Friday a group of eight LRA fighters raided Kidi village in Gangura district of WES – wounding one man and abducting two children. The two children were later rescued during classes between Arrow Boys and LRA, two of whom were killed. The Arrow Boy regional leaders, Alison Tunga promised to protect his people against future by the LRA. “Whether there is support to Arrow boys or not, we are committed to protect the innocent lives of our people. Because many pledges and promises has been made to help the civil vigilantes but very little has been done,” said Tunga. The recent attacks mark an resurgence in LRA aggression in the region which had been in a period of relative peace. The Commissioner of Yambio county, Angelo Bakote condemned the attack and called upon the Government of South Sudan “to intervene and support the SPLA [Sudan People’s Liberation Army] soldiers and the Arrow Boys so that peace could be attained during the celebration on 9th July.” South Sudan is scheduled to become an independent country on 9 July after her citizens voted overwhelmingly in favour of secession in a plebiscite in January. The paramount chief of Yambio county, who is also chairperson of the Traditional Leaders in WES, Wilson Hassen Peni said that he managed to move to Kidi immediately to spend the night with his people and support them during the attacks. He explained that as the people of South Sudan are getting closer to the declaration of the independence of South Sudan WES is expected to “be under frequent attacks from the notorious LRA rebels as they are regrouping themselves again.” Peni called upon the community to prepare themselves for more attacks and applauded the Arrow Boys for their action on Sunday. Since April 2011 the chiefs in Yambio County resorted to giving contributions to the Arrow Boys to boost their operations against the LRA as the official security apparatus was unable to cope. The military actions have failed to defeat the LRA rebels, however, allowing them to rampage across the regions of Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic for the past three years, leaving thousands of civilians displaced, abducted and dead. The AU has also taken steps to deploy joint operations against the LRA by the members of the three affected countries. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
