A National Security Council Meeting Chaired by President Salva Kiir, his five deputies and other senior officials at the Office of the President. April 24, 2023. | Photo: PPU.

A high-level security meeting in Juba directed for establishment of a fact-finding committee to investigate the insecurity along South Sudan’s western borders with DR Congo and the Central African Republic.

This comes following reports of clashes between SSPDF and armed groups in the border areas.

On Monday, the Western Equatoria State Police commissioner said three SSPDF soldiers were wounded in clashes with an armed group along the border with the Central Africa Republic.

Albino Utho Mariano said an SSPDF 1^st Lieutenant identified as Chol Akec was shot in his right arm during an exchange of gunfire between his forces and the unnamed foreign militia group.

On Monday, a National Security Council meeting chaired by President Salva Kiir and attended by five vice presidents directed the organized forces command to form a committee to find out the crisis in the border area.

“On the issue of border clashes in Western Equatoria, DRC, and CAR, the council has directed the formation of the committee by the Chief of Defense Forces, Inspector General of Police, and other senior officers from other organized forces including the national intelligence to go and find out what it is happening in the border and report to the government,” said Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the Minister of Presidential Affairs on SSBC.

During the closure of a three-day consultative workshop on federalism in Yambio town last Thursday, Governor Alfred Futuyo publicly accused Tambura and Ezo commissioners of supporting armed groups in the neighboring Central African Republic.

He claimed that an SSPDF solider was disarmed and his gun confiscated by a group of armed youth believe to be from Central African Republic on Wednesday last week.

Both commissioners denied the allegations and accused Futuyo of instigating a military operation in a foreign land.