Gen. Cirilo’s group denies attacking cattle camp in Eastern Equatoria

JUBA (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan’s holdout National Salvation Front (NAS) led by General Thomas Cirilo Swaka has dismissed, as baseless, allegations that it was behind Sunday’s attack on a cattle camp in Eastern Equatoria state in which over 20 people are said to have been killed.

In a statement on Sunday, Dr. Bior Kwer Bior, the Chairperson of Bor Community Youth Association (BCYA), said elements belonging to General Thomas Cirilo’s forces attacked civilians at an IDP cattle camp in Eastern Equatoria state resulting in the killing of at least 20 people and 15 others.

Bur reacting to the allegation, the spokesman of the National Salvation Front (NAS) Suba Samuel Manasse, said there is no anything of that kind and accused the chairperson of Bor youth group of spreading propaganda with the aim of tarnishing the image of the holdout rebel group.

“NAS categorically denounce this baseless accusation and propaganda and condemns it in strongest terms possible the lies being peddled by this ethnic association,” Suba said in a statement quoted by Sudan Tribune.

He further said the holdout group has no presence in the area of the alleged attack.

Bior in his statement called on the South Sudanese government to protect the IDPs and to dispatch the needed force to the area.

The BCYA leader also said that NAS forces were hunting women and children who sought refuge in the surrounding bushes fleeing the assailants.

For his part, Manasi said that the Bor Youth Group’s statement aims to cover the responsibility of Bor Dinka cattle breeders for a recent attack on a community in the Agora district.