he Minister of Information of Northern Liech State Lam Tungwar says an SPLA officer with the rank of captain was killed and two of his assistants were injured in attack by SPLA-IO.
Northern Liech is one of three proposed successor states to the government of Unity State.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Tungwar said a group of SPLA-IO soldier shot dead the SPLA captain who was on a patrol outside the town about 4 kilometer from Bentiu.
“One of our officers was on a patrol outside Bentiu town. He was confronted by a group of SPLA-IO soldiers and they shot him dead immediately and two of his assistants were injured in the incident,” said Tungwar.
Tungwar called upon the leader of the SPLM-IO and the first vice president to ask his forces to stop attacking government forces which he said will lead to more confrontation.
Separately, the SPLA-IO deputy military spokesman Dickson Gatluak confirmed fighting in the are but offered a different explanation of the events.
“The SPLA/Juba faction attacked our cantonment sites at Matjang and Tuarkiel in Unity state today at 7:00AM,” he said on Sunday. “The attack takes place in southern part of Rubkona County but SPLA-IO forces fight back and repulsed back the attackers at 1:00PM this afternoon.”
He said the attackers retreated to Bentiu and Wangkei Payam of Mayom County and their forces captured 2 PKM and 27 AK-47 guns from the government forces.
