SSPDF soldiers on a pickup truck - Credit: File Photo: Courtesy

A joint military operation of SSPDF infantry and riverine forces against armed militia is underway in Chollo Kingdom, a senior army officer has said.

General Joakino Fidel Nyikayi says the military operation that started on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, is aimed at flushing out armed militia who attacked a civilian camp in Fashoda County in Upper Nile state.

The deployment comes after President Salva Kiir directed the Chief of Defense, Santino Deng Wol to deploy the SSPDF forces in the area.

The deployment aims to quell the situation and restore peace in the area.

General Fidel who visited the area on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, says SSPDF infantry and riverine forces began the offensive in the area.

“At the moment the situation is a little bit calm. Our forces have left in search of those people in the bush there,” said General Fidel.

“The army is there trying to pursue them if they can be found because they were around but is not easy to tell exactly if they are still around or they have gone,

“The area is full of water and bushy and is not easy to identify or exactly to locate where they are because the area is completely bushy and full of water,

“We are trying to get them, but we expect some of them are still around.”

Fidel said the armed attack on the IDPs has resulted in civilian deaths and injuries with hundreds of people still missing.

He said during the incident vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled sought refuge in bushes along the banks of the White Nile.

Some of them drowned in the river and others were trapped in swamp waters.

Fidel says the armed youth known as the “White Army” also abducted women and children and destroyed properties and livelihoods.

He described the humanitarian conditions in Kodok town as miserable.

“There is nothing at all, no food, no medicine, and shelter, they are homeless, they are just under trees, some are in school, and others are in the old buildings left a long time ago and along riversides, they have nothing to eat,” said General Fidel.

“I am standing near people under trees laying down the near commissioner’s office, there is no empty place, all are occupied by displaced people,

“I just came from the riverside where some people are staying. They left all their belongings behind, and some were looted by those people who came from the other side.”

According to Fidel, since the attack, there has been no response from humanitarian organizations except the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, which provided protection in Kodok.

Fidel revealed that nearly 100 children have been separated from their parents or caretakers since the attack.

He added that the displaced people who fled the attack are lacking shelter, food, or medicines.