Jonglei: Over 80 guns confiscated in Bor town

May 30, 2013 (BOR) – The commissioner of South Sudan’s police in Jonglei state has reported that 85 AK47 rifles, 1 PKM machine guns and a number of pistols have been confiscated from civilians in a disarmament clampdown in Bor town on May 29.

“We targeted some residential houses in Bor, we searched for guns only but the our security forces had no problems with the people living here”, General Majok Adol said.

Sources said the disarmament-targeted houses of individuals who were marked out by security apparatus in the state capital.

A combined force consisting of 1,000 soldiers and police was deployed early on Wednesday morning to ensure that people could not hide their weapons elsewhere.

All the roads leading to Bor town were closed and were not reopened until after 1pm.

“We got 85 AK47s, one PKM and many pistols from civilian houses”, Adol said. He said some individuals were keeping guns with them in order to conduct robberies and other crimes.

Numerous cases of robbery at gunpoint have been reported in Bor over the last year but no suspects have been apprehended.

Most of these illegal guns are reported to have been found in the houses of some government officials but the police and the government have not commented on this allegation.

This is one of the many disarmament campaigns conducted in Jonglei state attempting to remove illegal weapons from the hands of civilians.

South Sudan launched a state-wide operation deploying an extra 15,000 police and soldiers in Jonglei in March last year following a spike in raids and retaliatory violence between cattle herding groups that displaced over 100,000 people.

The army is currently fighting a rebellion in Jonglei’s Pibor county led by David Yauyau.

(ST)

• Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR)
• Jonglei State
• Jonglei: disarmament process and security situation