Loka - Lainya Road. Courtesy.

Hopes of finding the five people who disappeared two years ago along Yei –Congo road, have been shattered, after the bodies of two women were found dumped at a roadside, in Tore Payam last week.

Yei County Commissioner, Aggrey Cyrus Kanyikwa said the five victims including three women and two children, whose names have not been given, were kidnapped by armed bandits in 2020.

They were leaving for the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo in November that year, when gunmen alleged to be affiliated with the National Salvation Front kidnapped them.

Commissioner Cyrus said county authorities and relatives of the victims as well as humanitarian agencies have been trying to secure the release of the victims from the rebel group.

“These two women were abducted since November 2020, and there were efforts to rescue them but unfortunately early this month, these women were executed and dumped next to the road,” he said.

Cyrus alleged that the NAS group refused to free the civilians, despite repeated efforts.

The rebel movement, which is active in the Equatoria region, has not commented on the claims by the commissioner.

The discovery of the two human remains leaves the fate of a mother and two children unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, Cyrus stated that the discovery of the bodies of missing women led to renewed clashes between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and NAS fighters on Friday last week.

“Of course, there is fighting and increased fear left behind with the civil population by the fighting. Some of them (civilians) might have run to Congolese side of the border,” he told Eye Radio.

The renewed clashes have reportedly displaced unspecified number of civilians to the Congolese borders and surrounding villages.

In what appeared to be a justification for a military offensive, the commissioner said the army cannot standby and watch where the lives of civilians are threatened.

“Where there is threat to civilian, where there is threat to environment and where there is threat to our national interest, it is by law the mandate of SSPDF to ensure that threat does not hold any ground.”