Fighting starts in Torit, hundreds flee for safety

Church authorities in Torit say they have received hundreds in their compounds, adding that others try to reach the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound. Heavy gunfire started at 9:00 AM local time and could be heard throughout Monday morning, mostly in the eastern and western parts of the town.

Civilians from Longute, Kuku and Mairo areas in Torit rushed to the nearby Catholic Church of St. Peter and Paul seeking safety the as gunfire intensified, carrying babies and their belongings.

I don’t know where my children are.

Anyese Keji is one of the women fleeing the violence in Torit. Keji says she is desperately looking for her eight children who got scattered, and does not know where to find them. “We were lying down inside the house when a soldier knocked at the door telling us to get out and go to the church quickly, but now I don’t know where my children are. Eight of them disappeared and I don’t know where they are. I am going to the church to look for them – I pray they are safe,” she says.

A person on the run, who prefers not to be identified, says he remains wondering where South Sudan is heading to. He says his hopes are scattered by unnecessary fighting and displacement. “At this moment we are in the Caritas compound trying to save ourselves. Up to now we have not yet got a clue about the shooting. It is the first time since the Juba crisis started in 2013 – nothing happened here but today, by co-incident, the shooting started from Lopulari,” he says.

Jakino Lomogo, the Parish Priest of St. Peter and Paul, says they have received hundreds of displaced people at the Caritas compound in Torit. “According to the information that I received from students of Akio Memorial Secondary School, they were told ‘you go home’ and after some minutes we heard gunshots and people started running here and there, so we were directing them to go to the church and those near UNMISS should go to the UNMISS compound,” he says.

Those within the compound can reach thousands.

According to Lomogo many were unaccompanied children, as their parents were in the farms and when “they heard the gunshots they came running here”. “Those within the compound can reach thousands, we will see later if we can avail something for them,” he says.

Already on Saturday, July 9, a group of unknown gunmen attacked the police headquarters in Gumbo residential area, Torit Municipality, but no casualties were so far reported.

County officials in Magwi also reported of a similar attack at a police station and a prison unit in Magwi on Saturday at 6:00 AM, stealing several guns and salaries meant for paying personnel. Magwi County Commissioner, Kingston Ben Loduk, says the attackers overrun police personnel and looted the two offices.

Fighting broke in South Sudan’s capital Juba last week, despite calls by the UN Security Council for rival factions to “urgently end the fighting”. The clashes between rival armed groups that engulfed Juba in recent days, have reportedly claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers and civilians, raising fears of a slide back into all-out conflict in the five-year-old country.