Army claims that we are responsible for highway attacks is baseless – General Cirilo’s group

JUBA – South Sudan’s holdout National Salvation Front (NAS) led by General Thomas Cirilo Swaka has denied that it is behind the last week’s highway killing in which five innocent people including 2 catholic nuns were brutally murdered.

Last week, five people returning from a Church service in Eastern Equatoria state were killed following an ambush by unidentified armed men. Among the victims were two Catholic Church nuns in South Sudan.

This week, six people including foreigners were also killed following yet another highway ambush and the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) has accused the National Salvation Front of responsibility for those attacks.

However, in a statement extended to Sudans Post yesterday, the group dismissed the army assertion that is responsible for the highway attacks as baseless saying the accusation is meant by the government to mislead the South Sudanese and the international community.

“The leadership of NAS refutes these baseless and unfounded accusations and strongly condemns these Juba regime’s agents and peddlers of lies for their futile attempt to mislead the people of South Sudan and members of the international community with false accusations,” the statement signed by the group’s spokesman Suba Samuel Manasse reads in part.

The senior opposition official further accused unidentified group sponsored by the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit of standing behind the highway attacks and urged the international community to also dismiss the government statement.

“NAS urges its members, people of South Sudan and members of the international community to be vigilant and not pay attention to the disinformation propaganda of the regime in Juba,” the statement said.