Ugandans ambushed in Juba again
AS he lay half-naked in the middle of the dirt murram road, his legs dripping with blood, Ben Ssekandi thought about his children. “Abaana bange!†Ssekandi mourned half-consciously.
By Badru Mulumba
in Juba
AS he lay half-naked in the middle of the dirt murram road, his legs dripping with blood, Ben Ssekandi thought about his children. “Abaana bange!†Ssekandi mourned half-consciously.
“Abaana bange!†Ssekandi mourned half-consciously. “Nnaawonna?†“What about my children? Will I survive?â€
Ssekandi and hundreds of other Ugandans travelling in a convoy of four buses and some 10 trucks, survived death on Sunday evening, but only narrowly.
Unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of vehicles from Uganda on the Nimule–Juba road, 23km from Juba, with Rocket Propelled Grenades, injuring about 10 Ugandans, and setting ablaze two vehicles.
“We first heard the bullets,†said Patrick Lugero, a businessman from Kangulumira, Kayunga, who was ferrying tomatoes and pineapples in a Canter Pick-up truck.
“The next moment, we saw people emerge out of the thicket, firing at us.†One bullet shattered their windscreen. It just missed Ssekandi’s head. Other bullets hit the sides.
Ssekandi swerved the truck into the thicket, off the road.
The two jumped out and ran towards Juba town. Bullets rained after them. Ssekandi got hit twice, while Lugero sustained one gunshot wound. Both collapsed on the way.
Some 50 metres away, Ismail Kiyaga, the driver of a Fuso truck, stopped upon hearing the gunshots, prompting a fish cooling truck to halt behind him. All the passengers jumped out and ran towards Nimule. The gunmen meanwhile had turned upon the Fuso truck and fish van, setting them ablaze.
Three other trucks stopped when they saw the smoke in the distance, ramming into one another as they reversed.
“We are the ones who saved this bus,†said Kiyaga, panting, as he pointed to a Nile Coach bus that came behind. Two gateway buses from Kampala and several other trucks carrying goods followed closely.
For a moment, commotion ensued when the UPDF soldiers, who were escorting the convoy, told the drivers not to proceed to Juba. Two SPLA soldiers, however, said they had cleared the road up to Juba.
The nearest SPLA detachment is at Gumo, about six kilometres from the scene of the attack.
The ambush, one of an increasing list of such incidents on the Nimule-Juba and the Torit-Juba roads, came only a day after the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, toured the area up to Nimule.
The road, according to traders, was closed on Saturday as Kiir assessed for himself the situation on the ground.
By yesterday, it was not yet established who was responsible for the ambush. Kiyaga said the attackers wore military uniforms.
Ugandan officials usually blame the ambushes on rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
But officials from South Sudan routinely accuse elements linked to the Khartoum army, whom they claim want to destabilise the South and disrupt the peace process, although they agree that they could use the LRA in their scheme.
The UPDF later picked up nine fleeing Ugandans on the way to Juba. The wounded were taken to Juba teaching hospital.
The Police was planning to send an investigation team to the scene.
in Juba
AS he lay half-naked in the middle of the dirt murram road, his legs dripping with blood, Ben Ssekandi thought about his children. “Abaana bange!†Ssekandi mourned half-consciously.
“Abaana bange!†Ssekandi mourned half-consciously. “Nnaawonna?†“What about my children? Will I survive?â€
Ssekandi and hundreds of other Ugandans travelling in a convoy of four buses and some 10 trucks, survived death on Sunday evening, but only narrowly.
Unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of vehicles from Uganda on the Nimule–Juba road, 23km from Juba, with Rocket Propelled Grenades, injuring about 10 Ugandans, and setting ablaze two vehicles.
“We first heard the bullets,†said Patrick Lugero, a businessman from Kangulumira, Kayunga, who was ferrying tomatoes and pineapples in a Canter Pick-up truck.
“The next moment, we saw people emerge out of the thicket, firing at us.†One bullet shattered their windscreen. It just missed Ssekandi’s head. Other bullets hit the sides.
Ssekandi swerved the truck into the thicket, off the road.
The two jumped out and ran towards Juba town. Bullets rained after them. Ssekandi got hit twice, while Lugero sustained one gunshot wound. Both collapsed on the way.
Some 50 metres away, Ismail Kiyaga, the driver of a Fuso truck, stopped upon hearing the gunshots, prompting a fish cooling truck to halt behind him. All the passengers jumped out and ran towards Nimule. The gunmen meanwhile had turned upon the Fuso truck and fish van, setting them ablaze.
Three other trucks stopped when they saw the smoke in the distance, ramming into one another as they reversed.
“We are the ones who saved this bus,†said Kiyaga, panting, as he pointed to a Nile Coach bus that came behind. Two gateway buses from Kampala and several other trucks carrying goods followed closely.
For a moment, commotion ensued when the UPDF soldiers, who were escorting the convoy, told the drivers not to proceed to Juba. Two SPLA soldiers, however, said they had cleared the road up to Juba.
The nearest SPLA detachment is at Gumo, about six kilometres from the scene of the attack.
The ambush, one of an increasing list of such incidents on the Nimule-Juba and the Torit-Juba roads, came only a day after the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, toured the area up to Nimule.
The road, according to traders, was closed on Saturday as Kiir assessed for himself the situation on the ground.
By yesterday, it was not yet established who was responsible for the ambush. Kiyaga said the attackers wore military uniforms.
Ugandan officials usually blame the ambushes on rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
But officials from South Sudan routinely accuse elements linked to the Khartoum army, whom they claim want to destabilise the South and disrupt the peace process, although they agree that they could use the LRA in their scheme.
The UPDF later picked up nine fleeing Ugandans on the way to Juba. The wounded were taken to Juba teaching hospital.
The Police was planning to send an investigation team to the scene.