By Andrew Olweny
Nimule, Magwi County, EES.
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May 19, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —— A nation in the middle of starvation and the national army of Sudan’s people Liberation Army whose reputation has been marked with unprofessionalism is now robbing the very civilians it claimed to have fought for and protected.
In Moli Dereto, an eye witness who spoke to this news site and asked for his identity to be concealed described the moment SPLA –Kiir attacked a civilian business lorry carrying food commodities from Uganda to Juba this Wednesday’s morning on 18 May 2016.
According to the eye witness who broke the news of the attack said, in the recent days till this morning at the time the incident, the SPLA-Juba has built its presence in the area with plenty of intelligent agents moving in civilian plain clothes as well as great increased of the soldiers in the uniform with their military armors vehicles mounted with heavy machine guns patrolling the highway day and night.
The inccident happened at Dereto (Auefuni area). The same eyewitness said before the lorry was burnt into ashes by men who dressed in civilian cloth believed to be SPLA-Juba who emerged from among the trees and attempted to stop the lorry.
Initially one Man in Civilian dressings made an attempt to stop the lorry However, according to the eye witness the driver of the lorry ignored him and accelerated on, in a short while three SPLA soldiers dressed in full military uniform emerged from the corner and at gun point stopped the driver and beat him with the bottom of the gun to unconscious before they open the back doors of the lorry, within a minutes some more soldiers arrived and began to loot the food items before setting the lorry into  ablaze.
He said seeing from a distant he cannot establish the identity of the driver whether he is fellow southern Sudanese or foreigner. He declined to give all the details of the lorry but he described the front part of the lorry as white color and the body is blue. He further said given the lorry was also carrying green banana (Matooke) most likely it belongs to a Ugandan business man because South Sudan businessmen are not doing business of green banana.
Another eyewitness who said he was from Juba on motorcycle said after the incident, in pretext to blame the attack on civilian in the area, the same looters (SPLA) army have seized and sealed off the area and temporary blocked the road. He added that they, the soldiers, have also imposed restriction of movement as they embark on house-to-house searching for what they called road bandits.
This is not the first time such attack has happened, last year government soldiers from SPLA unit in Moli attacked a bus belonged to a Ugandan company, killing five, injuring more than a dozen. They had also looted valuable goods including cash were extracted from the passengers by the soldiers mainly from Dinka, this according to the stories told by some passengers who managed to escaped from the bus. This happened at the time there was no rebel presence in the area as like in the case of this morning (Wednesday 18 May 2016) but by then SPLA spokesperson Col Philip Aguer blamed it on the rebel of Martin Kenyi at the time, which is ironic because Juba dismisses that there are no rebels in greater Equatoria.
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As in the case of this Wednesday’s morning attack even the uneducated is able to see through the ploy behind this attack, and it is also very clear that rebels could not emerge for such an act while SPLA-Kiir are heavily patrolling the area since last week.
Plans To Attack SPLA-IO in The Region
This is a paten well established, What is clearly happening is Juba is trying to justify its military build-up and maneuvers in the area to launch its planned attacks on the SPLA-IO forces in the area which Kiir calls Bandits, how fitting and best to justify such labeling than making his soldier commit acts of banditry as in preparations to initiate their long awaited military campaign  in attempt to rid the SPLA-IO forces from the greater Equatoria and Bahr Ghazal.
This attack on life serving civilians trucks must be condemn in the strongest term possible, there is no reason to attack lifelines, Kiir forces must be told to refrain from carrying such blackmailing attacks on civilians residential areas to justify his tribal agendas. This is an act of war crime. He must develop some mechanism to save and feed his starving soldiers, because those soldiers in Moli have been serving their maser without salaries for months as a result, they resort in uprooting cassava of the citizens in the area since the harvesting season of cassava is coming to an end the soldiers are now taking unprecedented step to loot and burn down lorries of the business communities. This is not how a nation can be build and progress. This is clear way of robbing the nation and this must be halt immediately without hesitation and the criminals elements of the soldiers who have done this despicable act must immediately be brought to books without using it as pretexts to penalize poor civilians and create unrest in the Magwi County to achieve some tribal goals.
