Alarming Security situation in Western Equatoria
By Watts Roba Gibia Nyirigwa
Sept 25, 2005 — The non formation of the government of south Sudan is casting its shadow on various areas in Southern Sudan, particularly among the nomadic cattle owners and cultivators. As till today there is no order enforcement in various parts of southern Sudan to keep the law and order. According to the information from Mundri, there is serious confrontation between the cattle owners and the local population around Mundri, as according to the news coming from the area (Mundri). On September 15, 2005 a number of cows from one of muras around Miliguye broke into one of the gardens and destroyed the whole crops, and the owner of the garden took about eight cows into custody of the local Chief Representative. But an old Dinka man (owner of cows) came and requested that the female cows should be released to feed their calves and that they will come the following day to resolve the dispute. The female cows were then released as per agreement, and the old man took the female cows back to their camp (mura). On the way he met with some Dinka youth about 17 and they did not agree with the old man’s decision, and they rushed and managed to free the remaining cows from the custody, and fired two shots on an old Moru who was in charge of the detained cows but they missed him, and again they fired on another disabled soldier but also missed him. There was another Muro guy who was standing by fired and killed one of the attackers and then they flew back to the camp (mura). And according to the information from Mundri the dead body of that fellow is still there. Then the youth of Miliguye mobilized themselves and went to the cattle camp (mura), but they were ambushed and eleven people died, four from Muro and seven from Dinka.
According to the information, the Miliguye youth started moving from camp (mura) to camp and good number of guns was captured but still sporadic heavy machine gun fires could be heard here and there. According to a wounded Dinka who is brother to commander brought to Lui hospital said about 10 Dinkas were killed night of September 22, 2005 and also said that lot of people were wounded.
On September 21, 2005 two Muro men unarmed was going towards MiliMududu behind the mountains, but they were attacked and one was killed, and the body was recovered later, and the killer is known, currently living around Lui compound but his family was flown from there. According to sources Dinkas are mobilizing themselves from various directions to reinforce their brothers in battle fields, and some are running away from Mundri. And according to CDR 42 and the Dinka officials in the area that they do not want to raise this issue to the high authorities because they can resolve it. And according to the sources as this date no official information has been sent to the high authorities. Also the sources said that when some forces were sent from Lanyi to Mundri to calm the situation down, they returned back before reaching Mundri and, according to local natives because they are all Dinka forces and they are the very people controlling the radio communication information.
According to the information, the battle field areas are Doso, Wandi, Miliguye and Lozo, and there were no government officials at site to give the exact picture of the situation on the ground, and that the number of casualties would be more than the number mentioned. And according to information the situation at Lui on September 22, 2005 was very tense and all shops and schools remained closed and no one was seen at the compound. And during the night someone blow up an alarming warning and everybody in Lui went in hiding till the dawn.
Afternoon on September 24, 2005 there was an attempt to attack Ismail Rajab (one of SPLA Officers) but it failed. This rose very high tension and no Dinkas were seen in Kotobi during the day, but they had a meeting last night (September 23, 2005) and the outcome of the meeting is not known according to the information from the area.
Hence, I call on the SPLM/A authorities to send an urgent investigation committee to the area to verify and to calm the situation down. As the dispute in Mundri between the local natives and internally displaced Dinkas over the destruction of crops by cows/cattle started more than 15 years ago, and the SPLM/A authorities did little to resolve the problem. As the local population in Mundri are dependent on their own agricultural products unlike the Dinkas. Consequently, SPLM leadership should put an end to such chaotic situation, either by repatriating the cattle owners to their original areas as early as possible or by having a temporary solution on ground till the repatriation time.
Once again the SPLM/A has to act quickly in consolidating its power allover the south Sudan, and particularly with the expected returning of internally displaced people, and with the wide spread of guns in south, it poses lot of unprecedented problems and chaos which SPLM/A leadership has to be premeditated to cope up with it, if at all we wanted peace and stability to prevail allover the fast areas of the Southern Sudan.
* Watts Roba Gibia Nyirigwa a Sudanese from Cairo – Egypt.
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