7 abductees to reunite with families in Greater Pibor Administrative Area

BOR, OCTOBER 26, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – Local authorities in Ayod County of South Sudan’s Jonglei State have announced that they have handed over at least seven abductees to the government of Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA).

Speaking to Sudan Post on Wednesday, Ayod County Commissioner James Chuol Jiek Bol said the abductees who include four children, and three women were handed over to the Jonglei State government this week and were handed over the authorities in GPAA on Tuesday morning.

The senior local government official said the victims were abducted following a revenge attack in which armed youth from Ayod led by a local spiritual leader launched assault against several villages in Greater Pibor Administrative Area earlier this year.

“These children and women were abducted at the time were Makuach Tot went to Greater Pibor Administrative Area. We got all these abductees in the hands of the abductors in Ayod,” Commissioner Chuol said.

“The children have been handed over to the state authorities and that is the state minister of gender in Jonglei state and UNICEF. They have handed over the abductees to Greater Pibor government Yesterday at around 10:00AM,” he added.

He said the state government in collaboration with county commissioners are working hard to recover all the abducted children and women in Jonglei state and hand them over to the authorities in Greater Pibor.

“It is a role of the state government to retrieve all the abducted children and women and we are doing it now. We are getting these abductees whether they are abductees in Ayod, Akobo or any other county in Jonglei state,” Chuol said.

Attempts to reach authorities in GPAA for comment were unsuccessfully as phone calls to the area’s information minister rang unattended to.