NAS denies responsibility for abductions, killings on Yei-Juba road
May 1, 2021 (MOROBO/YEI) – South Sudan’s opposition National Salvation Front (NAS) has strongly refuted allegations that its forces were responsible for recent killings along Juba-Yei road.
According to Central Equatoria State minister for information, Paulino Lukudu Obede, NAS forces ambushed, burnt and killed civilians traveling on the road between Yei and South Sudan’s capital, Juba.
The hold-out group, in a statement, refuted the allegations as false.
“NAS condemns in the strongest terms possible these unsubstantiated allegations labeled against NAS forces by the regime’s state collaborators. The purpose of these accusations is conspicuously to lie to the state citizens that the failed state government is relevant and still working,” partly reads the statement.
The group instead accused the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and it allied forces of being behind attacks recently carried out on Yei-Juba road.
“The SSPDF are continuously looting and battery citizens in areas of Morsak Boba and in Kenyi Boma of Yei and Lainya counties respectively,” it stated, citing an incident in which the army and some elements allegedly attacked a cattle camp in Kenyi Boma and looted several animals.
“This is an open looting perpetrated by the so called government soldiers against innocent civilians and yet the government which is supposed to protect and defend these civilians opted to side with these elements who are tormenting their constituencies,” it stressed.
The hold-out opposition group reiterated its commitment to the Cessations of Hostilities Agreement signed in 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Rome Declaration signed in 2020 in Rome, Italy.
(ST)