Army soldiers, police unit exchange gunfire in Lakes

AWEIRIAL – A group of South Sudan army soldiers has exchanged gunfire with politic unity in the country’s Lakes state, after killing a renowned wrestler before driving away with his gun, according to police authorities in the restive state’s Yirol county.

A senior police officer in Yirol told Sudans Post this evening that they were alerted at midnight on Tuesday that a military vehicle travelling between Awerial and Yirol knocked down a civilian man taking his gun.

The police officer said they were ordered by the authorities to go to the highway to wait for the military car to ask why they killed the unidentified civilian, but instead were shot at by the soldiers sparking exchange of fire.

“We were told that they killed a civilian and they took his gun. We went to the street to wait for them because they were coming from Awerial county and it is at this point that an exchange of gun erupted between us and them because when we asked them, they instead fire at us without answering us,” the police officer who refused to be named told Sudans Post.

Separately, the Chief Inspector of Police in Awerial County, Bol Tier, was quoted by Radio Tamazuj on in a report on Thursday as saying that they were called and told that a vehicle was involved in a hit and run and the police decided to intercept it at midnight when they arrived Mingkaman town, but instead, the occupants opened fire on the police.

“There was a car which came from the direction of Yirol, and it knocked someone on the road in Awerial. The deceased is called Bunlong Aguat. So we waited for the vehicle, intercepted it, and wanted to ask them why they knocked and killed a person,” Bol Tier said.

“The vehicle arrived at midnight. The police and the army stopped the vehicle, there were two Land Cruiser vehicles. The occupants of the vehicles were soldiers and they refused to stop and instead opened gunfire on the soldiers who were stopping them leading to an exchange of gunfire.”

“When the vehicles eventually stopped, two soldiers jumped out and ran to the suburb. There was an SSPDF officer in the vehicle who was immediately arrested. The gun of the wrestler who they had earlier knocked dead was found in the car. The SSPDF lieutenant admitted that they had knocked and killed someone on the way,” the police officer added.