Civil Society Activist Edmund Yakani has condemned the slaying of 10 young boys by armed men who attacked Wonduruba area in Central Equatoria, urging Governor Augustino Jadalla to probe the incident.
Assailants launched a mid-night attack in Wonduruba on 9th October, in which they dragged male juveniles out of their homes, butchered them with machetes and left their bodies lying on the road and bushes.
The incident occurred hours after alleged fighting between rival factions of the National Salvation Front (NAS) in the outskirts of the area, and shortly after visiting Central Equatorial Governor Augustino Jadalla left for Yei.
Wonduruba Administrator Tongo Stephen Michael said those killed were mostly young people, except for a 44-year-old businessman.
Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) said the hacking to death of the young men is a crime against humanity and called on Jadalla to form a committee to investigate the incident.
“We as an organization first strongly condemn the action that took place in Wonduruba because it constitutes a crime against humanity and human rights violations because beheading is an inhuman act and it’s a crime against humanity,” he said.
“As civil society organizations, we are urging the governor to take the immediate responsibility of constituting a committee to investigate what went wrong and why did it happen.”
He further appealed to the ceasefire monitoring body CTSAM-VM and the UN Human Rights Commission for South Sudan to launch inquiries into the incident.
“It amounts to violation of the permanent ceasefire and the protection of civilians in the spirit of implementing the revitalized peace agreement, we further extend our call to UN human rights commission for South Sudan to investigate this.”
Addressing a rally in Yei on Thursday, Governor Jadalla underscored President Kiir’s enduring appeal to holdout groups to join the peace process through the Tumaini Peace Initiative in Nairobi.
“The President reiterated that the amnesty he declared in Yei in 2017 when he came to attend the centenary celebration of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in Yei still holds and those holding arms against the government still have the opportunity to benefit from it,” Jadalla said, according to his office.
The statement from Jadalla’s office said the governor spoke about the need to renounce the culture of violence and the need for collective efforts to improve stability in the state.
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