Map of Western Equatoria State. | Courtesy.

Police in Western Equatoria have launched an investigation into a series of banditry attacks that resulted in lootings and injuries in Yambio County and other areas of the state.

The state police commissioner, Major General Albino Otto Mariano, said the bandits are engaged in nighttime lootings, ambushes and other forms of attacks that have left at least one person nursing a bullet wound.

General Mariano said the perpetrators are members of an organized criminal group which include a felon, who previously escaped from prison.

According to him, the state police managed to arrest 8 other people who escaped from jail.

The police commissioner said the assailants hide along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo during the day and attack Yambio residents at night.

“Those criminals are just putting up in DRC borders, then they come at night to Yambio city. Last week, they came to the house of one civilian, they beat him, loot and shoot him on his hands.”

“When the police hear the sounds guns at night, they rush to the scene, and they (criminals) ran away, and the survivor is admitted in the hospital under treatment.”

“The police is following them, running after them, and they are back to the DRC border. The investigation is ongoing, we are still following them and there’s some ambush at night.”

According to him, the criminals are armed with AK-47 rifles and other weapons making it harder for police to apprehend them.

He urges Yambio residents to report any criminal incident to the nearby police, while appealing again to the DRC government to cooperate with the state in arresting the bandits.