Forceful disarmament suspended, to resume nation-wide during dry season – spokesman

JUBA – South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) has announced that it has suspended the disarmament process in the country’s Lakes and Warrap states, and will resume nation-wide during the dry season.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an exclusive interview on Thursday, Brigadier General Santo Domic Chol, the acting army spokesman, disclosed that a nationwide disarmament campaign will resume as soon as the rain stops.

“The disarmament will resume as soon as the rain stops, the lands get dried, and the rivers dried up, then we will be able to cross all the rivers including Baar-Naam River which is now full,” Domic told Sudans Post reporter.

“Now the civil disarmament has been classified into two stages; Stage one is the peaceful disarmament which is been done by the local authorities including the chiefs, and community opinion leaders within societies, and the stage two is going to take place during dry season whereby the SSPDF will intervene after receiving a report that will be complied by the local authorities,” General Chol added.

The disarmament which began in August was halted months after a deadly fighting erupted between armed civilians and members of the disarmament campaign, leaving over 200 people dead including 80 members of the organized forces.

The clashes began after soldiers in the process beat at least one man to death, angering his colleagues who later on started shooting at the Romic Centre in Tonj East.

More than six years after a civil war broke out in the country, and in the absence of a functioning government, many communities are flush with weapons, which they keep for protection or defense against cattle raids.

Cueibet violence rages on as dozens killed

The announcement by the SSPDF to suspend the disarmament campaign comes as violence in Lakes state’s Cueibet county killed at least 11 people killed and wounded 7 others in a fight that was triggered by revenge attack.

The fighting was triggered when a director of prison service in Cueibet County, Major Makol Mathiang, was gunned down by unknown gunmen in front of his office on Tuesday evening.

“There were casualties, 11 people were killed from both sides, including the driver of the ambulance who was transporting wounded persons to the treatment facility and 7 others were wounded,” Secretary General of Defunct Gok State, Mamer Thokgor, told Radio Miraya’s Breakfast Show.

The State official revealed that the present of guns at the hands of civilians is the one causing insecurities in the state.

“The fighting has divided Gok into two, it has destroyed our county, and I am telling the people of Gok County that let this incident not repeat itself again,” Mamer said.

Mamer however said that efforts are underway to deploy security forces to contain the situation.