Local leaders in Aweil urge dialogue in Twic-Abyei land dispute

February 24, 2022 (AWEIL) – Church and traditional leaders in South Sudan’s town of Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, have called for dialogue to end the ongoing crisis between neighbouring communities in the Abyei area and Twic of Warrap state.

Earlier this month, 16 people including a health worker were killed and over 50,000 have been displaced as a result of intercommunal clashes between Twic County and their neighbours in Abyei.

“We still do not understand the actual cause of the dispute and we also do not understand why this new old conflict exploded now, said Mayuol Deng Atak”, a native of Nyalath in Aweil town, the administrative headquarters of Northern Bahr El Ghazal.

“We need them to sit down and talk. War is nothing but destruction. We have seen it all, whether in Twic or in Ngok. Those advocating for war in their comfort zones wherever they are not facing the realities of the situation to which they have thrown innocent people from both sides, in Ngok and Twic”, said Mawien Tong Mawien, a resident of Aweil from Aweil East County in northern Bahr El Ghazal.

For his part, Kom Aguer Geng, a traditional leader in Aweil East County in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, said they have been talking to their counterparts in Twic and Abyei to look at the bigger picture and stop it.

The traditional leader further said that the crisis could boost the morale of the Arab nomads in the north and the political procrastination in South Sudan to settle the status of the disputed border area of Abyei.

Twic county commissioner Deng Tong Goch said on Thursday it was clear that officials from Abyei areas were not willing to listen to concerns in their standoff over Anet.

Ajang Deng Miyen, Minister of Information in the Abyei administrative area denied the charge, saying they did not know what they have done to warrant attack, destruction, and killings that have been experienced recently in the area.

(ST)