Diaspora community aid displaced persons in Magwi County

March 13, 2022 (JUBA) – The Acholi community in Australia and North America (SSANA) have provided assistance to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Magwi County of South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State.

Sporadic clashes between the farming communities and cattle herders in Magwi have displaced more than 17,000 people, state authorities said.

The displaced population urgently need food items, soap and shelters.

The Magwi Relief Committee revealed that it received a total of $10,100 to assist those displaced from Agoro, Omeo, Nyolo, Ayii-kit, Maji and Abara.

The donation, it said in a statement, is meant to assist those in urgent need.

Salfa Ben, a Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) official, disclosed that more than 2,700 households have been affected by the conflict.

He said those displaced are staying under trees in Magwi town, as local authorities make arrangement to have them relocated to better places.

John Bosco Ayella, the chairman of the Acholi community in North America strongly condemned and denounced the killings, abductions and displacements of people by cattle herders who invaded Magwi County.

“We urge our government to put in place a policy that manages both the cattle, resources and the relationship between pastoralists and the farmers, including the movement of cattle,” he stressed.

Ayella urged the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), African Union (AU), United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to investigate the root causes of conflict and hold the perpetrators of violence accountable.

More than 70 percent of population in South Sudan will struggle to survive the peak of this year’s lean season as the country grapples with unprecedented levels of food insecurity caused by conflict, climate shocks, Covid-19, and rising costs, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned in a statement issued on Friday

(ST)