{"id":91846,"date":"2026-04-13T14:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:44:27","slug":"spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash","title":{"rendered":"SPLA-IO Retakes Akobo After Deadly Dawn Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Sudan. <\/strong><\/span>A local journalist in Akobo reports that fighting erupted early Monday morning as SPLA-IO forces retook control of the town, which had been under the control of the South Sudan People\u2019s Defence Forces (SSPDF) for nearly a month.<\/p>\n<p>According to Sam Koang, the clash began around 5:11 AM and lasted for approximately one hour.<\/p>\n<p>Sam, who currently lives in the Ethiopian town of Tiergol\u2014located across the Pibor River from Akobo\u2014visited the town after the fighting subsided. Sam, a staff member of Akobo Peace Radio, reported on the aftermath of the engagement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fighting erupted between the two rival forces, the SSPDF and the I.O. It lasted for almost one hour,\u201d Sam reported. \u201cI went into the town myself and saw many dead bodies within the military barracks and other surrounding areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The town had been under SSPDF control since March, a period during which most residents and media professionals moved to neighboring Ethiopia following an evacuation order from SSPDF headquarters for civilians to vacate the area.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities have not yet issued a formal statement regarding the death toll or the current status of the area. Both the SSPDF and SPLA-IO have yet to issue statements following the incident.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Sudan<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Sudan. A local journalist in Akobo reports that fighting erupted early Monday morning as SPLA-IO forces retook control of the town, which had been under the control of the South Sudan People\u2019s Defence Forces (SSPDF) for nearly a month. According to Sam Koang, the clash began around 5:11 AM and lasted for approximately [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":91844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-91846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-sudan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SPLA-IO Retakes Akobo After Deadly Dawn Clash - South Sudan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A local journalist in Akobo reports that fighting erupted early Monday morning as SPLA-IO forces retook control of the t ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SPLA-IO Retakes Akobo After Deadly Dawn Clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A local journalist in Akobo reports that fighting erupted early Monday morning as SPLA-IO forces retook control of the t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Sudan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-13T14:20:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-13T14:44:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2026\/04\/sm_1776078815.361557.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"SPLA-IO Retakes Akobo After Deadly Dawn Clash\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-13T14:20:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-13T14:44:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash\"},\"wordCount\":220,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2026\/04\/sm_1776078815.361557.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Sudan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/spla-io-retakes-akobo-after-deadly-dawn-clash\",\"name\":\"SPLA-IO Retakes Akobo After Deadly Dawn Clash - 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