Fury as two students abducted in Juba still missing

March 24, 2016 (JUBA) – Relatives and authorities have expressed concerns over the fate of two school students abducted by gunmen in the South Sudan capital Wednesday.

The move comes in the wake of an incident in which five students from Promised Land secondary school were taken hostage at about 7:30am in Sherikaat, a suburb located south of Juba on Nimule road.

“The students left school compound in the morning and took a walk to a nearby forest to look for mango fruits but never returned until late on Wednesday when only three of them managed to escaped and return to their homes,” Solomon Ajith, a teacher told Sudan Tribune Thursday.

Daniel Bior Chol, one of the three students who escaped, said two men held them at gun point after identifying them as being students.

“He [gunman] asked us, which school is this? We said Promised Land. He said who promised that land to you? We told him to go and ask the school director because we are just students,” narrated Chol, while recalling his conversation with the man armed with an AK-47.

“Then another man came from the forest, having cocked his gun and instructed us to follow a path leading to their homes. There, our faces were covered with our clothes and the canned us badly,” he added.

The beating, kicking and gun butting of the students reportedly lasted for several hours before a car with tinted glasses arrived.

“They took us to the bank of the Nile River and ordered us to jump into the water. Then they started shooting,” further narrated Chol.

At that point, Chol said he managed to swim and hide in the carol reeds and grasses before finally climbing out from the water under the cover of darkness. Two other students, he added, also survived.

Chol said two of his colleagues only identified as Bol and Dhieu were still missing.

Soldiers at the military post at Rajap said they responded on hearing about the kidnappings, but it was too late to arrest the gunmen.

The incident comes barely a week after gunmen raided people on Juba-Nimule road. On Friday, a man was killed close to the scene of the students’ kidnapping and the killers were yet to be identified.

Most of the killings, sources say, are directly linked to accusation of land grabbing.

(ST)