JUBA: Gunmen in South Sudan shot dead a regional police chief in the latest violence in the world’s newest nation, which is struggling to contain ethnic militia forces as well as cattle raiding, the army said yesterday.
Bandits were reported to have stopped the head of police for Eastern Equatoria state in a daylight ambush as he drove from the South Sudanese capital Juba on Sunday to the regional town of Torit.
“It is a very unfortunate incident.. the police commissioner of Eastern Equatoria General Malok Riing was killed along the road between Juba and Torit,” said army spokesman Philip Aguer.
Oil rich South Sudan was left in ruins by decades of war with northern Sudanese forces, who fueled conflict by backing proxy militia forces across the south, often exacerbating historical enmities between rival groups.
Eastern Equatoria, which borders Uganda and Kenya, is far from the violence along the restive frontier with former civil war enemy Sudan, from which the South broke away from in July.
The region remains awash with automatic rifles despite disarmament efforts.
FROM: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
South Sudan bandits kill state police chief
