Army officers drown in notorious Luri River

At least four soldiers were confirmed dead after two of their vehicles slipped off the Luri bridge into the river last Friday. Sixteen officers who were caught up in the same accident survived.

“Yesterday in the evening (Friday), Luri river pushed two army vehicles into the water after the overflowing water caught them in the middle of the bridge,” Friday Badi, a police officer at Luri confirmed to City Review on Saturday.

He said the two army land cruisers were trying to cross Luri Bridge and unfortunately the vehicles were overwhelmed by the rapid flow of the river. 

“The information I got from the survivors [is] that they were about 20 people in the two cars. So, many of them survived and four of them already confirmed dead meaning around 16 of them survived,” Badi explained. 

According to Badi, out of confirmed deaths, four were soldiers, two were national security offices and two were from commandos division.

On Saturday morning, Inspector General of Police Gen. Majak Akech Malok visited Luri Bridge the place where the incident happened. 

Gen Majak confirmed to the state-owned television South Sudan Broadcasting Cooperation (SSBC) that the deceased persons were members of the organised forces tasked to facilitate the return of cattle from around Juba to Terekeka.

“What happened was that on Friday evening, there were two army vehicles on their mission, when they reached Luri Bridge, they tried to cross but the two vehicles were taken by water. 

“The two vehicles had 20 soldiers, 16 survived 4 are still missing under the water and one vehicle belonging to NSS was recovered but the other for the SSPDF was not recovered,” Gen Majak disclosed.   

The IGP called on the Luri Bridge contractors to speed up the construction of the bridge to avoid continuous loss of lives.

Construction efforts

Two weeks ago, a passenger vehicle overturned into Luri River, and 14 passengers survived dead.

Last week, President Salva Kiir directed the Ministry of Roads and Bridges and the company constructing the Luri Bridge to double their efforts to accomplish the work soon.

In a statement to the media during the visit, Minister of Roads and Bridges Simon Mijok Mijak said, “President Salva Kiir has directed us to complete this bridge it has taken the lives of our dear ones for the last 10 years.”

According to Mijak, the construction is in the last phase and it will end by March next year.

The bridge collapsed in 2012 and has claimed several lives whenever it rains.

In 2017 and 2019, over 20 people died in the Luri River when the vehicle they were travelling in slipped off the bridge into the river.

The most shocking incident happened in 2019 when the overflowing river dragged a land cruiser into the water killing up to nine people among them a mother and her four children.

The Luri River bridge lies on a road connecting Juba to Western Equatoria and beyond into Bahr el Ghazal State.

In 2019, the Transitional National Legislative Assembly allocated SSP86 million for the construction of the deadly bridge.

In the same year, the fund was endorsed as part of the fiscal year budget allocated to the Ministry of Roads and Bridges. However, members of the public have always criticized the government for its reluctance to repair the bridge that has claimed several lives.