An SSPDF soldier from Tiger Division, the culprit behind Gogrial West murders.

According to the military, a soldier has been apprehended as the primary suspect in the weekend deaths of three foreigners and a local in South Sudan’s Warrap State.

A shooter shot and murdered three Syrians and a South Sudanese national on Sunday in the Akon district of Gogrial West County, Warrap State.

Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang, the official spokesman for the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF), said during a news briefing in Juba on Tuesday that the primary suspect had been apprehended.

Private Yak Garang Yak Yak of the army’s Tiger Division was named as the key suspect by Lul. He did not, however, provide the victims’ names. “Our security personnel got into action and apprehended the perpetrator. Private Yak Garang Yak Yak was his name. He is a Tiger Division SSPDF soldier. “He is the primary suspect in the deaths of four people, three foreign nationals and one South Sudanese,” he said.

The soldier was being detained at Wunyiik, the headquarters of the army’s Third Infantry Division, according to Lul.

The army spokeswoman said that the motives for the executions are unknown, but that inquiries into the event have begun.

“As we speak, plans are being made to transport him to Juba, and the Chief of Defense Forces, Gen. Santino Deng Wol, has already initiated paperwork aimed at the formation of an emergency court martial so that the suspect is tried and convicted here in accordance with our national laws as well as the SPLA act 2009,” Lul said.

“The establishment of the court martial is the major duty of the Chief of Defense Forces, but it must be authorized by His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit as the Commander in Chief of the SSPDF,” he said.