By William Madouk
Some travelers along Juba-Yei Road, were subjected to horror, on Saturday, last week, as armed assailants ambushed, stripped them nude, before looting valuables.
Bosco Bush, a scribe with No.1 Citizen daily Newspaper, one of the survivors among six passengers, recounts the ordeal on his way to Juba after a visit to family in Yei.
On the fateful day, Bush and other travelers started their journey from Yei, on a happy note, but all of a sudden it turned into a nightmare, as armed men appeared on the road, ordering the driver to a halt.
“I was traveling to Juba from Yei, after a distance of over 20 miles – we fell in an ambush by armed men, we were six onboard a Premio Toyota car,” Bush told No.1 Citizen Newspaper.
According to Bush, the incident happened at a forested point, along Yei – Juba Road in Mankaro area of Loka Boma, Lainya County of Central Equatoria State.
“Those guys appeared from the bush and stopped us at gunpoint. They stopped the driver and told all of us to get out of the car,” he noted.
Bush said there were four women and two children on the “doomed Saturday incident’ at 11:00 am. More horrifyingly, the captives were order to undress before being robbed.
“Getting out of the car, we were told to raise our hands up and directed to match to the bush,” he narrated.
Moving 30 meters, they told us to sit down – so, we sat down and they told us to remove our clothes. We had to follow their orders and did, except women, Bush narrated.
Though the passengers had left most of their belongings in the car at disposal of the assailants, whatever remained was snatched from the clothes.
Before the attackers parted with money, laptop, smart phones and other items from the first car, a Tipper lory also fell in the same ambush.
“They told another group to stop the Tipper Lory, it was instantly stopped and they did the same things they did to us and they were brought to join us – approximately 6 people,” Bush said.
On joining the first captives, those from the Lory were administered similar treatment and bother teams ordered to move away from their prior location.
Bush, in his own words said that, “We started moving inside the bush, they took us in a distance of about 40 minutes, barefooted remember all our clothes and shoes were removed [only left with under-pants] when reach another stage they told us to sit down.”
The gunmen told us to continue marching into the bush till we hear gunshots and everyone should run. Then, the ear deafening gunshots scattered us running for our lives, the scribe said.
After running for a while, some of the freed captives slowed down to take a breath of relief and recuperate from the terrifying experience.
“It was like a horror movie displayed in a real life,” Bush recalled.
The scribe said, at first, he feared that armed men might have killed the hostages who were last in the line, since he was in the middle as they marched through the forest in silence.
Bush said when they reached the main road, he borrowed a pair of trousers before a boda-boda rider drop him at Lainya county headquarters, where he met the commissioner and head of security to narrate them what happened.
“Where we were robbed, there was some nearby South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) barracks. I think, they got that information and start shooting in the air,” he explained.
Reports indicate that government forces in Loka were also alerted about the incident and immediately went to the scene.