A herd of buffaloes, Kidepo National Park, Uganda. |Courtesy photo

Authorities in Budi County, Eastern Equatoria state, report that 12 South Sudanese nationals suspected of poaching were fatally shot by Ugandan Wildlife Rangers in Kidepo Valley on Friday.

According to the Commissioner of Budi County, Akileo Mboya stated that a group of more than 12 youths in the area had crossed into Kidepo Valley National Park where they attempted to poach wildlife.

He says Uganda Rangers opened fire and killed 12 of them.

The figure is contrary to a report by Northern Uganda-based tndNews putting the death toll of South Sudanese poachers at 4.

The digital media also has it that the Ugandan rangers recovered about 4 firearms after the incident.

Speaking to Eye Radio, the Budi County commissioner confirmed the incident, stating that the authority is investigating the deadly confrontation.

“Some youth from my county entered Kidepo National Park to poach, unfortunately, they were intercepted by the Ugandan Wildlife Rangers, 12 people unfortunately lost lives. Those were the youth from Budi County. We are still trying to investigate how and where exactly it happened.”

The remains of the slain youth are said to remain in the shooting spots.

The county official describes the encounter as unfortunate and condemned the act.  “We condemned the act, it is unfortunate that we lost lives even if the animals are to be protected.”

According to Mboya, the incident was the first of its kind in a while and appealed to Juba to deploy forces along the border to prevent such incident from recurring.

“My appeal is to the national government, the wildlife life ministry to deploy forces along the boarder point in order to avoid such incident where lives are lost.”