CEPO warns of resumption of Upper Nile violence after boat attack left 10 dead

JUBA, FEBRUARY 24^th 2023 (SUDANS POST) – A South Sudan’s civil society watchdog, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) has warned that Wednesday’s attack in which ten people were killed along the Nile is a sign of resumption of violence in Upper Nile state.

On Wednesday, gunmen attacked a boat heading to Unity State’s Adok Port at Gondokoro of Central Equatoria state killing ten traders. Lawmakers representing Unity State in the Council of State called for investigation to held the perpetrators accountable.

In a statement, the CEPO condemned and describing the attack as disturbing and warned that it may be a sign of resumption of violence in the Upper Nile region in which hundreds of civilians were killed last year and thousands more displaced.

“CEPO condemned the crime act of gunmen ambushing boat in the River Nile heading to Leer county. This act is disturbing and it is resumption of the deadly communal violence in upper Nile state,” the civil society watchdog said.

Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of CEPO called on the transitional government to deploy the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) who graduated last year to provide security to civilians and their properties across the country.

“The redeployment of the graduated Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) is essential for the sake of protection of civilians and provision of individual and community safety and security,” he told  Sudans Post from Juba.