UNMISS, IGAD team visits Tambura County
August 7, 2024 (JUBA)- A high-level delegation from the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the African Union and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) visited Tambura County in Western Equatoria state on Wednesday.
The visit, the deputy spokesperson for the Secretary General said, is the latest in a series of interventions by stakeholders to reduce tensions and prevent conflict following outbreaks of violence, which caused significant loss of life, destruction of property, and widespread displacement in April 2024 as well as in 2021.
“To During discussions with local authorities and communities, the delegation called for grievances to be resolved through dialogue and stressed the importance of peacebuilding initiatives that address the root causes of conflict,” said Farhan Haq.
Pre-existing factures between the Azande and Balanda communities in Western Equatoria state have largely been politicized, exacerbated, and exploited.This divide, according to UNMISS, caused by multiple factors, including tension between the Avungara ruling clan of the Azande and the Balanda over leadership roles in political offices and traditional authority structures in Tambura, constituted a fertile ground for the escalation of violence.
In the period leading up to the outbreak of conflict in Tambura County in June 2021, intermittent reports of ethnically motivated violence targeting of civilians in surfaced between February and May 2021.This resulted in, among other forms of violations, killings and displacement of civilian populations, in particular of individuals identified as Balanda or associated with the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army-In-Opposition (SPLA-IO) forces within the area.
Previously, the human rights department of UNMISS, had reported on violations and abuses against civilians in Tambura between April and August 2018, in which it documented human rights violations arising from conflict between conventional parties, immediately prior to the signing of the September 2018 peace agreement.
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