Pibor Administrative Area - Courtesy

The government of Pibor Administrative Area has arrested three youth in connection with the abduction of five children from the Equatoria region in 2023.

Pibor Minister of Information, Abraham Kelang, said the arrest of the three suspects also led to the recovery of the 5 children, including four girls and a boy.

Kelang said four if the recovered children are from Central Equatoria and one is from Eastern Equatoria.

According to him, the perpetrators were arrested in Gumuruk County at the border with Jonglei State, before the children were recovered.

The information minister says the three men, whose names he withheld for confidentiality, are aged 31. 30 and 29 respectively.

He said two of the suspects are in police custody in Pibor while the prime suspect was arrested by the police in Juba.

Mr Kelang said the youth will soon appear before the court to hear charges against them regarding the abduction of the children aged between 2 and 16 years.

He says according to the Murle bylaws, any person involved in and found guilty of committing child abduction, shall be jailed for ten years.

On Friday, the deputy chief of Pibor, John Abula, issued an order mandating security force in the administrative region to combat child abduction.

He said the government has so far rescued 16 hostages since the beginning of 2024.

Abula called for collaboration between Pibor and Central Equatoria to address the issue of abduction rather than generalizing the whole community.