A group of young people arrested on accusations of criminal gangs association. (-)

More than 50 young people have been cleared of all charges and released following their arrest in December 2023 on accusations of involvement in criminal gang groups in Juba while 254 are set to appear in court, police said.

The head of the Investigation Committee, Nikademo Aluong, said the 52 suspects were released after being cleared of the charges and declared not guilty.

“The total number was 306 suspects and we conducted investigations with 297 of them and charged 245. They were accused and 52 were released because they had no connection to the crime or crimes committed,” he said.

“At the beginning of our operation, we divided the city of Juba into three sectors: the western, central and eastern sectors. We arrested 91 suspects in the eastern sector, while in the western sector, the number of suspects was 109 and the central sector was 106.”

On his part, National Police spokesperson Major General Daniel Justin said the government will continue the crackdown on criminal activities in Juba and countrywide.

General Justin said they managed to apprehend 191 suspects more suspects at Gudele and Gumbo Sherikat areas in January 2024.

“As part of our awareness-raising operations, we sat with them and talked about staying away from criminal acts,” he told the media at Rajaf Police Training Centre where the suspects are being kept prior to investigation.

“We confirm that our operation to arrest criminal perpetrators will continue, and we have been able to arrest 191 suspects in the Gudele New site and Gumba Sharikat. We will continue to arrest suspects in drug and theft cases.”

On 27^TH PF November 2023 National Police have so far arrested more than 300 suspected gang youth including eight girls in an ongoing crackdown in the capital city of Juba.

The crack-down has taken more than a week.

Major. General Daniel Justin who is the police spokesperson says, the suspects were arrested from different localities including Gumbo-Shirikaat, Gudele, and Lologo areas.

According to General Justin, out of the 310 suspects, 70 were apprehended for Gumbo on Saturday while 125 others were arrested today.

The police spokesperson added that the newly appointed Inspector General of Police gave an ultimatum of 21 days to get rid of gang-related crimes in the city.