Governor says military recruitment ongoing in W. Equatoria state

October 7, 2015 (JUBA) –The caretaker governor of South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state, Patrick Rafael Zamoi on Wednesday accused civilians of not cooperating with authorities by not identifying unknown gunmen killing and looting in the region.

“They [ivilians] should come up boldly and say this is what we are suffering from,” he added.

Western Equatoria state has witnessed several cases of killings, armed robbery and attacks on military bases. The governor, however, said the gunmen now ambush passengers on roads and rob them of mobile phones and money.

“So far, for us the government, we are handling this issue with care,” he said, citing Yambio, Mundri West and Mundri East as counties with highest cases of attacks on military camps in recent weeks.

“Up to now, it has not come clearly to us who is behind all these? You find young men being abducted among the community, when you ask the community, the community is quiet. When you ask them, who are these people. We don’t know. Who have done this? We don’t know.’ So we have to ask our community, for how long are we not going to know who is doing all the atrocities among them?” said Zamoi

In August, President Kiir sacked elected governor Joseph Bakasoro and appointed Zamoi.

(ST)