UNDER OUR OWN TERMS: Jonglei herders want cows transported on trucks before they leave EES
The government finally secured an antidote that might cure the ongoing insecurity crisis between cattle keepers and the host communities in Nimule, Eastern Equatoria State.
The harder finally agreed to leave the area but under their terms.
The Eastern Equatoria State’s Governor, Louis Lobong, teamed up with the country’s security chiefs to convene a rally in which they finally managed to convince the herders to evacuate their cattle to Jonglei State to pave the way for reconciliation. They warned politicians against fueling the conflict by spewing hateful messages.
But the consensus did not come for free with herders setting their own conditions that they want to be honoured before they return with their animals to Jonglei.
First, they told the government to provide free transportation to their animals. According Press Secretary in the office of Eastern Equatoria State Governor, Aliandro Lotok, the herders told Governor Lobong’s government to provide them with trucks to carry cattle from Magwi to Jonglei State.
Help us move
“The cattle keepers said cattle are not like human beings to be told to move now. They said they’ll not flinch unless they got the trucks to move the animal.
According to the herders, they will continue occupying the area probably beyond July when they might move back to Jonglei. The herders had moved from a flooded Jonglei to Eastern Equatoria State, in search of pastures for their animals after the place became inhabitable.
“They said if they can be provided with trucks, they could evacuate cattle within a very short time.”
Lotok stressed a need for South Sudanese to look at themselves beyond tribal lines by accepting one another, living in peace and harmony with one another.
“We want people to live in peace and inculcate in the minds of our people a spirit of peace, togetherness, harmony and reconciliation, and to build responsible citizens.
“We are talking about 64 communities, all these 64 communities are residing in Eastern Equatoria. The governor is calling on them to accept each other, to respect each other’s culture so that we don’t get into problems.”
Calm returns
Lobong’ office informed the public yesterday that the government had deployed forces at Mugali Payam in Nimule.
This was an effort to guard the area and encourage locals to return to their respective homes.
“A security force has been deployed in Mugali to keep law and order and facilitate the smooth return of citizens to the area,” the statement from the office of the governor read.
The governor called on the host community to return to their homes and continue food production.
This was an effort to lessen panic caused by the cattle raid on Wednesday, which left over 20 people dead, 3,000 cattle stolen and masses displaced.
Kon Majok, a resident in Nimule yesterday confirmed that calm had returned to Nimule after the deployment of security forces, and people had resumed normal life.
Blame game
Over the weekend, the governor of Eastern Equatoria State, Louis Lobong, and Bor community members were locked in a deadlock over the conflict in question.
This was after the Lobong wrote a statement accusing Bor community of transporting violence from Jonglei State to Eastern Equatoria.
”The people of Eastern Equatoria are suffering from a conflict transferred from the Greater Jonglei region,’’ Lobong said in a statement sent to newsrooms on Saturday.
He appealed to the leaders of Jonglei State and the Pibor Administrative Area to call back herders to their respective areas in the state.
“I strongly reiterate my appeal to the people of Greater Jonglei to go back to their areas and try to find ways of addressing their issues among themselves,” he stated.
“I call upon the leadership of both Jonglei State and GPPA to immediately take all necessary measures to withdraw their people from EES,” Lobong said.
The chairman of Bor Community, Dr Angok Kuol, denied the accusations from Governor Lobong.
‘‘We would like to make it clear that our people started moving towards Juba when they were attacked by youth who were organised and facilitated by the government of Eastern Equatoria State,’’ Kuol said in a statement.
On Monday, the chief administrator of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, Lokoli Amee Bullen told Eye Radio that the raiders were from Greater Pibor Administrative Area, claiming that the Pibor had no connection with the inter-communal conflict in Magwi.
“My people are not living in Eastern Equatoria. We don’t have cattle keepers living there, and none of my people are doing agriculture there. In Greater Pibor we have our problem, cattle are raided, I know my people used to go even to Bor, I don’t deny who is working on it,” Amee said.
“How can people from Greater Pibor go too far away to Eastern Equatoria? We have Kapoeta cattle keepers here in Boma, and we never raided them. If our youth are the ones raiding cattle, why would they not raid the cattle in Boma?” Lokoli Amee said.
But yesterday, the press secretary in the office of the governor of Eastern Equatoria State, Aliandro Lotok, maintained that Governor Louis Lobong was a security chief and a general, and therefore, could not release a baseless official statement.
“The Governor is the chief of security in the state and a General, he cannot release statement he is not sure of. What he said was the truth about the raiders,” Aliandro told The City Review.
