NAS says not responsible for killings on Juba-Yei road
April 1, 2021 (YEI) – The Leadership of National Salvation Front (NAS) has strongly refuted allegations that its forces recently ambushed and killed people on the Juba-Yei road.
At least nine Ugandan drivers were been killed in a deadly ambush on the Yei-Juba highway in neighboring South Sudan last weekend, authorities confirmed.
The opposition group, in a statement, said it was not the first time its forces were wrongly accused by President Salva Kiir’s government.
“On the same note, NAS condemns the irresponsible remarks made by the Governor of Central Equatoria State (CES) Hon. Emmanuel Adil Anthony who falsely accused NAS of carrying out road ambushes and further describing NAS as terrorist organization,” partly reads the statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Thursday.
It further stated that citizens of Central Equatoria State, in particular, and South Sudan in general lived in agony because of the “atrocities being committed by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and its allied militia”.
“The SSPDF and its allied militia have been repeatedly looting, burning houses, killing, raping women and displacing the citizens from their villages,” it stressed.
The hold-out opposition group largely blamed the recent attacks on innocent civilians on the country’s national army and pastoralists operating in these areas.
“On the other development, the cattle keepers from different areas of South Sudan are freely marauding and grazing in the whole of Central Equatoria State, armed with modern weapons, and constantly supplied with food as well as ammunition from their benefactors from Juba,” further noted the statement.
Meanwhile, NAS reiterated its commitment to the Cessions of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) signed in 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and to the Rome Declaration signed in 2020 in Rome, Italy.
(ST)