Two Ugandans, Kenyan national gunned down in South Sudan

Ugandans trading with South Sudan were Wednesday gripped with shock and fear after two of their colleagues and a Kenyan national were separated from other travelers and gunned down by armed bandits. 

The incident took place on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, at about 11:00 am, at a spot called Jombo, 19 miles along the Yei Road, inside South Sudan, according to Ugandans living in South Sudan. 

Friends identified the deceased as Abbas Nsubuga, a taxi driver from Koboko who plies the Yei route and comes from Kazo near Bwaise in Kawempe division in Kampala.

He was driving a taxi and carrying a lot of merchandise for Ugandans who trade in Yei and was in the company of his colleague only identified as Kamawu, a Ugandan mechanic from Koboko, but born in Luwero.

Taxi driver, Abbas Nsubuga

The third victim, only identified as a Kenyan Masai shoe vendor was also gunned down. 

According to Alex Muwanguzi, the chairperson of Ugandans living in Yei, armed men ambushed vehicles in a convoy and robbed most of the personal items and merchandise they were carrying. 

He said that the gunmen, however, separated the South Sudanese nationals and put the two Ugandans and a Kenyan aside and shot them dead, and abandoned the bodies by the roadside.  

He said last week another Ugandan, only identified as Yoweri from Budondo in Kamuli district survived with bullet wounds after he was also attacked by gunmen but managed to escape and was still undergoing treatment in one of the health facilities in Yei.  

Muwanguzi said the gunmen robbed all the merchandise that Nsubuga was transporting including clothes, motor spares, phones and other items. The bodies were later transported by colleagues back to Koboko and took them to the hospital mortuary where friends and family members went to see them.  

Another Ugandan, Denis Baraka Musazimana who was supposed to travel in the same vehicle but remained behind, said that on Wednesday, Nsubuga returned from Yei and offloaded merchandise he had loaded. 

He said he immediately loaded more merchandise and was hurrying back to Yei, leaving him behind.    

Musazimana said the police from Koboko checked the bodies and later allowed the relatives to take them home for burial but friends and relatives in Yei and Koboko had organized a vigil before deciding to transport the two Ugandans back home.  

The police spokesman, Fred Enanga said the police did not have much role to play apart from carrying out a post-mortem to confirm the death and allowing bodies to be taken.

He said the police also needed statements from relatives so that they can share them with their counterparts in South Sudan in case they arrest the suspects and need to prosecute them in courts of law.

Another Uganda who was attacked last week in South Sudan

He, however, said the ministry of foreign affairs and the UPDF would be in position to give a detailed report about the matter.  

The incident had created fear among the Ugandan business communities both in Uganda and in South Sudan especially since the gunmen were targeting Ugandans.