A view of former U.N. protection of civilians (POC) site in Juba, South Sudan, Dec. 5, 2016. (J. Craig/VOA)

Residents of former Protection of Civilians’ Site three in Juba are calling on the police to intervene and curb recurrent robbery within the area, involving armed civilians.

The latest incident according eyewitness who identifies himself as only Ujum occurred last night at 8 PM in the camp 3, where a man was shot in the back while at a charging station.

“There is a serious looting happening  these days or for the past week. To be honest, these people(tags) are not soldiers but civilians who are looting people with guns.

“We don’t  know exactly who these people are. Even yesterday at 8pm looting  happened inside here in Camp3. They shot a man in the back at a charging place but he is fine as he was taken to then hospital”, he said.

Fortunately, the unnamed victim survived after he was rushed to the hospital.

Mr Ujum said the situation is normal during the day, but the looting often takes place at night.

“At the day time, the situation is normal but the problems happened at night time”, he added.

Ujum is appealing to police to deploy forces to curb the looting and violence in their area.

According to him, they reached out to local government officials and security organizations for assistance but are unsure about whether their appeals will be taken seriously.

“We  tried to talk the government body  that’s inside here in POC3 so that they pass our message to the government.

“We want police to be deployed inside the camp so that such incident does not happen again, but I don’t know where they did…”

When contacted, the Chairman of POC-3, Elijah Hon confirmed the recurrent incidents, saying the thiefs frequently come masking their faces, and shooting into the air before looting the residents’ belongings.

“They fired into the air and the people who were there ran, at the same time there shot one person and then they fired 9 bullets into the air, and they cover their face with black clothes”, he said.

Elijah Hon is calling on the government to intervene and send police officers to protect those living in the POC3.

“I was the one who send my message to the government because I know a place without security is not good. I said that if there is way the government can bring police  such things will not happened.”

Asked about the incidents, police spokesperson Colonel John Kasara said that they have not receive any report concerning the incidents, but said that they will investigate the matter.

“I actually do not receive any report with regards to such case, but I will still be searching for more information and see if the authorities are well aware of about happened and then I will forward it to the IGP.