USAID food stuffs looted in Fangak state: officials

March 24, 2015 (BOR) – Seven trucks loaded with assorted food items were allegedly forced by rebels to offload at Kuach-deng village in Ayod county of South Sudan’s Fangak state.

The seven tracks were carrying about 300 metric tones of food, both yellow peas, sorghum and vegetable oil, sent for emergency support by Jonglei Food Security program (JFSP), a Catholic Relief Service (CRS) project funded by United States Agency for International Agency, office of food for peace (USAID/FFP).

“We were threatened with guns. They accused us of taking the food to government soldiers in Ayod. We tried t o explained to them that the food was meant for the civilians, but they refused, even after we showed them all the documents. We were forced to offload the food in the bush and released us to come back,” a driver said.

“They took from us all the phones, including Thuraya phones, money other personal belongs”, said a senior driver who refused to say his name”, he added.

CRS officials in Bor declined to confirm these reports when contacted by Sudan Tribune.

The former director general in ministry of local government, Bashir Deng said he had no access to people in the rebel controlled areas, but said he did not have any information.

(ST)