The road from Morobo to Yei has been closed for several days now. The situation is pathetic. Rainwaters have eaten up the road in many places, and behind the side bushes rebels often hide who ambush travellers and relieve them of their belongings. Till now, rebels limited themselves to taking money and mobile phones, but they returned the sim card, so that no one could communicate of their presence in the area.
On Tuesday, August 2nd, also the Salesians had to deal with them. A young Salesian had to go to Yei to take his flight to Juba. They were aware of the risk, but since they had no other choice, two Salesians, a lay collaborator and a driver decided to accompany him by car. They were about halfway through, when they were alerted by travellers in a car coming from the opposite direction of the presence of rebels on the road who had robbed them of their belongings.
Despite this, since they had no alternative, the Salesians decided to give try and proceed. They prepared an old mobile phone and some money to give in case of an ambush. And this is what happened. At the place indicated by the other travellers, there were some rebels in uniform, each carrying an AK47 rifle. They took the old cell-phone and the money the Salesians had already decided to sacrifice and some more money was given by the young Salesian who had to take his flight. But they did not allow the group to proceed to Yei and obliged them to return to Morobo.
On the whole, however, the Salesians can only thank God for having protected them. A few hours later, at the same point, a lady and her driver were wounded because the man had decided to return without an explicit permit of the rebels. Both of them are now at the government hospital in Morobo.
