Crime barricade tape. | Courtesy.

A civil society activist has called on Upper Nile State government to intervene after six people were killed in two separate incidents on Thursday.

John Lwong, an advisor of the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations, said five people were shot and killed in Fashoda County while working on their farms.

Another civilian was further killed at the UN Protection of Civilians Site in Malakal town, he said.

The trail of murders comes at a time of relative peace and stability in the state after two battalions of the unified forces were deployed there in late 2023.

Lwong said since the killings took place, no government officials talked about the incidents. He urged authorities to visit the crime scenes.

“We heard the news on Thursday. No, government officials have visited the incident area. They have not gone they have not seen even how the people were killed,” Lwong said.

“They (government officials) should go and see these areas where people are being killed every day so that they can respond as the government. But now, they are just quiet.”

“In our engagement with the government, we always ask them to provide security. It doesn’t mean within the city, but security has to be provided even to the villages.”

No perpetrator has been identified so far, and the state government is yet to make a statement on the latest insecurities.

The advocate attributed the incidents to absence of justice and accountability for the “heinous crimes” he said have been recurrent.

The activist called for deployment of the unified forces to protect civilians in the affected areas.

“This is one of the reasons because you know lack of justice also motivates the perpetrators to continue. There has been a lot of killing in Malakal and there is no justice at all. Those the perpetrators were not held accountable.”

“We are calling for the unified forces police that has been graduated be deployed. But after now they have not been deployed there is no absolute police in Malakal. It is I join operation that are creating.”