NAS denies responsibility in Eastern Equatoria armed clashes
The National Salvation Front (NAS), led by Thomas Cirilo, has refuted a claim by the chairperson of the Bor Community Youth Association that its forces have attacked cattle keepers from Bor who have settled in Eastern Equatoria State.
In a press statement released on Monday, February 28, 2022, NAS stated that the information circulated on social media by Mr. Bior K Bior, the chairperson of BCYA, was false.
According to NAS’s spokesperson, Suba Samuel, Mr. Bior accused the movement of attacking the herders and killing five of them, scattering some and pursuing others.
He condemned the accusation and termed it as propaganda and lies being peddled against them by the cattle keeping community youth leader.
Suba claimed that their forces are not active in the areas occupied by the cattle keepers in Eastern Equatoria State and stated that the statement by the youth leader was an attempt to twist reality in order to escape responsibility.
“NAS is aware that these cattle keepers last week committed heinous crimes against the local people in Agoro Magwi County. Therefore, to deflect the blame and responsibility, NAS is to be accused and implicated as usual,” Suba stated in the statement.
“NAS takes this opportunity once again to condemn in the strongest term possible the crimes committed by the marauding cattle herders who are on rampage destruction of villages and property of the local population and their livelihood,” he added.
Last week, the administration of Magwi County reported that over 2,000 residents of Agoro-Chomboro village were displaced by armed cattle keepers when they ambushed a group of youth in the area who were taking a bath at a water point.
According to UNMISS, the number of IDPs sheltering in Magwi County rose to 3000.
There has been an influx of cattle in Magwi, majorly from Jonglei State, that has raised fears among the farming community since the dry season began, but authorities in Eastern Equatoria State are yet to take action to resolve tensions between farmers and the cattle keepers in the areas of Magwi.
However, the governor of Eastern Equatoria State, Louis Lobong, asked the community in Magwi County to decide on what the state government should do to resolve their problem with the herders in the area when he visited the area recently.
“Now [it] depends on the community; if the community says they should go, we will ask them to leave, but if they agree with the community to graze for some time in a specific area, we have no objection as a government,” said Lobong.
Lawmakers in the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly from Magwi County have petitioned President Salva Kiir over the influx of cattle and urged him to order the evacuation of the cattle from the area that are accompanied by people who are armed.
Cattle keepers are often reported for intimidating residents, looting their belongings, burning villages as well as destroying crops, and such actions usually create confrontations between them and the farmers whose lives entirely depend on crop production.
