South Sudanese army kills 16 in border town: reports

April 5, 2017 (PAJOK) – South Sudanese soldiers killed up to 16 people in a town near the Ugandan border, various media outlets reported.

Several eyewitnesses said men wearing uniforms of the South Sudan army arrested nearly a dozen young people and executed them. Sudan Tribune could, however, not independently verify the claim.

A spokesperson for South Sudan’s army was not immediately available to comment.

Meanwhile, the deputy spokesman for South Sudan’s armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO), Gabriel Lam claimed government soldiers looting and killed civilians in the South Sudan town of Pajok.

“They also went to a health unit and found a health worker, and he was slaughtered,” Lam told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus programme.

“They grabbed everything from the school, they destroyed the hospital completely, especially in the market center, and they destroyed all the shops and looted everything from the shops,” he added.

Violence associated with South Sudan’s three-and-a-half-year civil war has driven over 1.6 million people out of the country, according to the latest statistics from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). Also more than 700,000 currently live in Uganda.

(ST)