Crime barricade tape. | Courtesy.

A wildlife ranger was killed, and his colleague is injured in an ambush by bandits along the Bor-Gadiang highway in Jonglei State on Saturday.

The Director-General of the Ministry of Wildlife, Lt. General Khamis Adieng said the armed poachers ambushed a patrol convoy at 12:15 PM on the dreaded highway between Jonglei and Pibor.

“These days, we are launching a dry season operation to cover all areas where wildlife is available, and this time we went to Bor Jonglei State, so our forces were countered and ambushed today at 12:15 minutes in a place called Gadiang,” he told Eye Radio.

“They were ambushed by armed men and unfortunately, we lost one of our rangers, and the other one is wounded.”

Adieng said the rangers fought back against the bandits and arrested three of them.

He said one of the culprits has been identified as a former ranger-turned poacher, while the other was wearing an SSPDF uniform while the third culprit is a civilian.

“They also struggled and arrested three people from the other side. Unfortunately, also one of them is a wildlife non-commissioned officer, the other one is in SSPDF uniform, but we are not sure whether he is from the army or just wearing the uniform, and the other one is a civilian.”

General Adieng said they launched a counter offensive on the poachers camp and recovered seven motorcycles as well as massive quantity of dry meat.

“We managed to recover seven motorbikes. They were I think left behind by their owners. There were also bush meats in the camp.”

The wildlife official said at the time of the interview, that they were coming back to Bor to open a police case.”