Kidnappers demand 45 million SSP ransom for release of 9 travelers

JUBA — A group of armed assailants have kidnapped at least 9 travelers along Juba-Terekeka road in South Sudan and are demanding ransom of 45 million South Sudanese Pound a lawmaker said.

Philip Ladu Jembeke, lawmaker representing Terekeka County in the yet to be reconstituted parliament said the nine travelers were hijacked on their way to Terekeka — 48 KM from the capital Juba — on Tuesday.

“Today (Tuesday)I received I called from the head of cattle camp who told me that two young men who were travelling to Terekeka this evening fall into an ambushed and they were abducted” he said.

Ladu said the travelers were kidnapped by unknown armed.

“When I communicated to two young men who were captured, they told me they were captured by armed men,” Jembeke said.

“When I talked to one of the young men who were abducted they told me they were two in number but on their way they found 7 others and currently they are nine in number but they could not disclose to me their whereabouts,” Jembeke added.

He said they are still tracing the whereabouts of the kidnappers

“They (kidnappers) said they had captured these people and they declined to tell me where these young men were,” he disclosed.

“When I talked to the kidnappers, they told me that they are not going to release them unless we send them a sum of 5 million for each traveler,” he added.