74 people killed, 54 kids abducted in Jonglei state: report
June 2, 2015 (BOR) – 74 people were killed, 108 wounded and 54 children abducted in South Sudan’s Jonglei state last year, an annual report to the state assembly showed.
A total of 1,800 herds of cattle were raided in the state, it said.
According to the minister, of the 54 children abducted, five were from Uror county of the country’s largest state.
“In all these insurgencies, Murle have been the cause [of] all damages devastating [Jonglei],” Athiu told lawmakers.
But the minister said enforcement units has 9,648 officers, comprising of police and prisons and wildlife services, but lacked enough arms to protect innocent civilians from such attacks by armed criminals.
“Our problem is not about the lack of man power, we have no weapons to arm these trained officers”, he told state legislators.
Jonglei invested more fund in the security sector when the financial year started, but no improvement has so far been seen on ground.
The gross salaries for law enforcement forces amounted to 12,290, 438 SSP, and over 1.5 million SSP allocate for security maintenance.
The minister said his docket faced financial shortage as collection and remittance of personal income tax levied on all organised forces salaries was not effectively done, hence deficits in the budget.
The tax was projected to be 9,713,000 SSP, but only 454,697 SSP was realised.
(ST)