Gunmen rob over 1 million Sudanese Pounds in Bentiu
Ivory Bank guards told investigators that a 15-member gang surrounded the bank around 2:00 a.m. on 4 April and tied them to a utility pole before blindfolding them at gunpoint.
The burglars are reported to have exchanged heavy gunfire with a group of security personnel who spotted them on the Bentiu Secondary School Highway opposite the assembly office of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party in southern Sudan.
\"Suspicion is focusing on army groups.\"
Gideon Gatpan Thoar, government spokesman of Unity State, suggested that suspicion is focusing on \"army groups,\" adding that the criminals will be brought to justice. However, he noted that security forces had not yet issued an official report on the gang’s origin.
Officials of State Security Legal Department promised to hunt down the robbers and locate their hideouts, saying a report would be submitted as soon as possible.
Sources indicate that three policemen hired to protect the bank are now under arrest on suspicion of involvement in the robbery.
A relative of one of the arrested policemen, speaking on condition of anonymity, said security officials had ignored earlier reports of active armed groups and were now trying to put the blame on innocent policemen. Bentiu police have so far refused to comment on the arrests.
Two days earlier, a group of burglars broke into the premises of the Sudanese Agricultural Bank in Juba. As reported by South Sudan Radio, the robbers stole over 1.6 million SDG, or about US $586,000 plus an additional $1,300 in U.S. currency.
The two crimes heighten the sense of insecurity in Southern Sudan, which has been hit by a wave of army defections since the January referendum to secede from the North passed almost unanimously. The region will declare full independence on 9 July.
