Kuku Diaspora Community urges UNIMSS to set base in Kajo-Keji
WASHINTON DC: USA: FRIDAY, June 3rd: The Kuku Community in the diaspora has called on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan – UNMISS to establish a base in Kajo-Keji county following the murder of three people by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) in the area last week.
SSPF forces killed a 38-year-old man and two teenage brothers in Kajo-Keji County’s Kiri Boma, Central Equatoria state. The SSPDF commander in the area admitted his soldiers were involved in the killings.
One of the civilians killed by the army forces reported seeing the body of a soldier near their farm. Instead of investigating the cause of the soldier’s death, the soldiers took the law into their hands and shot dead the three young men, according to a press statement the Kajo-Keji Community in North America released this week.
Nelson Goyo Loponi, the Chairperson of the Kuku Community in North America urges UNMISS to establish a civilian protection base in Kajo-Keji to supplement the enforcement of law and order and to provide training to the county police force.
“The UNMISS will protect the people because right now as I speak, they’re protecting civilians in Juba, Malakal, Upper Nile. Where the police and army turned against their own people, they (UNMISS) were there to protect people,” Loponi said.
“We believe that temporarily until the police and the army come to their senses (and) until they are taught how to protect their own people, the mission can do a good job. There’s no other alternative, the government is not doing what it’s supposed to do,” Loponi added.
The group is also demanding an immediate investigation into the killings. Henry Lejukole, deputy chairperson of the Kuku Community in the US says he did not expect such barbarism from the forces that are supposed to protect South Sudanese citizens and their property.
He expects the perpetrators to be apprehended because they’re known from the pictures shared on social media where one of the soldiers who shot the boys stood by the body. Lejukole also believes the other soldier that shot a young man in the Nyepo area is also known by name.
“The authorities know who these people are, so as citizens of South Sudan, we expect they should be arrested and investigated and tried if possible so that if found guilty the law can take its course,” Lejukole said.
The killings of innocent civilians have destroyed the trust between the people and the organized forces operating in Kajo-Keji says Lejukole
The Kuku diaspora community demands that authorities expedite the arrests and prosecutions of these soldiers without reprisals against witnesses or relatives of the deceased.
The community is calling for the immediate release of young men and women arrested in Kiri Boma and detained by the SSPDF, including a mother who is being held along with her baby in a military facility in Kajo-Keji.
Oliver Moga, a South Sudanese-born resident of North Dakota, wants the government to remove the SSPDF commander in Kajo-Keji, Colonel John Kamilo and his deputies from duty.
“Replace them immediately with officers and men from Kajo-Keji County or other parts of Equatoria. They have failed to prevent the rank-and-file, under their command, from killing unarmed civilians,” Moga told The Insider.
“We believe this change will protect witnesses and relatives of murdered civilians from intimidation and reprisal by SSPDF,” he added.
All the people of Kajo-Keji want is security and freedom without being harassed by armed forces or pastoralists, says Lejukole.
“We would like a diverse military force that includes people from Kajo-Keji itself and other parts of Equatoria and other ethnicities because the impression that we’ve right now is that the military is predominantly one ethnic group or dominated by only a few ethnic groups.”
“It intends to exacerbate the situation because it creates the feeling that it is one particular tribe against the other whereas it might not be the case. it’s just a situation that involves a few individuals who should be held responsible for their actions,” Lejukole said.
The Kuku Community also called for the immediate release of Bella Benson, the Nyepo Payam Administrator who is being detained alongside another Nyepo resident identified as Modi Lo Konga.
Loponi demanded that the government removes the security committee in Kajo-Keji, including the County commissioner, Erasto Kenyi.
“Why keep the commissioner when he’s not doing his duties? Why keep the commander of the army when he doesn’t control his army from doing the atrocities that they are doing to the people? (and) why keep the police that are supposed to keep law and order to ensure that nobody takes the law into their hands? Why keep them there?” Loponi asked.
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