Fangak County Commissioner condemns violence in Leer
The Fangak County Commissioner has condemned the violence targeting innocent civilians in Leer County.
In a press statement issued last night, Biel Boutros Biel decried what he described as hate speech engineered by two area commissioners.
“All I have heard and listened to, especially from [from the two commissioners], is nothing but hate speech towards the Leer community, ” he said,” as he described his conversations with the colleagues.
“What has been so disgraceful is the humiliation, killing, displacement, and abuse of the rights of the ordinary civilians of Leer County,” he said, adding that the atrocities must be condemned.
Biel accused the perpetrators of using armed youth to attack unarmed civilians. “Killing civilians and displacing them is something horrific. You cannot do this when you are a legitimate government body. “
The Fangak County commissioner says that the current fight in Leer County is an indictment of the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU).
“This time we are in peacetime,” said the commissioner. “There is no reason to attack or to fight among ourselves, the war is over, and the ceasefire signed by the warring parties still holds.”
Fighting erupted on Friday in the northern part of the country. The clash was between troops of First Vice President Riek Machar’s SPLA-IO and fighters that defected from the movement in August 2022 to form the Kit-Gwang faction.
Military leaders from both sides have called for an end to the clashes.
Biel warned that the fight could jeopardise the existing harmony between the three communities in Unity State, which have been coexisting.
“The community of Leer, Mayendit, and Jagei have been living together for a long time. They have a strong bond of unity, and it cannot just be destroyed like that,” he protested.
”As a member of the SPLA-IO, I see this as a proxy war and a betrayal of the SPLA/SPLA-IO leadership,” he claimed, adding that there was a plot to smear Dr Machar’s reputation.
He advised the commissioners to seek dialogue rather than supporting inter-communal conflicts.
“There must be a dialogue because we are one people and there is no reason for commissioners to fight with your civilians. I appeal to my commissioners to think that the Unity counties are more important than political interests. “
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) disclosed on Monday that “several villages in the south of Leer town have been plundered and torched.” It added that the “team was concerned about claims that the adjacent port of Adok on the White Nile—the state’s second-largest economic hub—had been destroyed.
“Disturbing reports of sexual violence, looting, and destruction” prompted peacekeepers to “intensify patrols,” spokesman Linda Tom told AFP on Tuesday.
