SPLA-IO accuses govt troops of committing atrocities in Central Equatoria JUBA (28 Aug.)
South Sudan’s opposition faction has accused government troops of ethnically targeted killings of civilians, arrests and rapes in Katigiri and Lainya areas in Central Equatoria State. Col. Kenyi Bennett, spokesman for the SPLA-IO in Central Equatoria, told Radio Tamazuj that the government forces had arrested 26 civilians at Katigiri area in the last three days. “The government forces arrested citizens at Katigiri, the citizens were living in the bush due to fighting, and they arrested about 26 people three days ago” said Kenyi. He further said about 16 among the detainees were killed and that the government troops took some of the detained citizens to their garrison outside the area. Bennett also accused the government forces of gang-raping a girl, besides the killing of a young man in Lainya County last week. “Last week on Sunday, some citizens sought shelter inside the church in Lainya, so the government forces came and arrested local youth and then killed one person. They also ganged raped a girl, about 20 men ganged-raped the girl who was in the church” he explained. For his part, Col. Santo Doming, deputy spokesman for the SPLA forces in Juba, denied claims that they committed atrocities in Lainya and Katigiri areas recently. He claimed that what happened was a split within the armed opposition fighters. Santo pointed out that the detainees are believed to be members of the SPLA-IO rebels. “What happened in Katigiri was caused by pockets of the opposition forces that remained around the area, so they differed, because some of them said we should join the government, while others refused” said Santo. Radio Tamazuj couldn’t independently verify these claims. -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14opega7xbwPx6qKZ068Tu5AEX0Y9jq_tr2FRLdwjZNHYzQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
