Yei town, South Sudan (Photo: © RFI/Sheila Ponnie)

The South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) briefly battled “elements” of the National Salvation Front (NAS) in Yei town of Central Equatoria State on Thursday leading to the abduction of six young men, the commissioner said.

Aggrey Cyrus Kanyikwa said the fighting which lasted for about ten minutes took place at around 2:00 am at Dem Residential Area in Yei town.

Kanyikwa said prior to the attack the SSPDF had received report about the presence of NAS forces on Wednesday, and deployed a patrol unit around Yei town.

This resulted in an encounter between the army and elements affiliated with the rebels of General Thomas Cirillo, after which the latter allegedly abducted six men aged 18 to 25 years.

“It was an encounter of SSPDF and armed elements of National Salvation Front who are attempting to come and do abduction from the town,” Kanyikwa said.

“They wanted to abduct young men to recruit them, it is around Dem and it lasted for ten minutes. After the encounter in Deem they went and abducted some people in the morning around 2am.”

“They abducted six people aged 18-25, we already received report since the day before yesterday of their presence and there was a patrol and it is because of the patrols that we were able to encounter them.”

Eye Radio’s efforts to reach NAS spokesperson Suba Samuel for a comment were not immediately successful.