Ambororo confirm their exit from W. Equatoria territory

September 30, 2010 (YAMBIO) — Over 100, 000 herds of Ambororo cattle are confirmed to have been evacuating from Western Equatoria state’s territory, according to an interview with Ambororo chief on Wednesday.

The Ambororo Chief, Mohamed Suleiman, who represents the group at Southern Sudan level, stated that his nomadic tribe was honoring the order which instructed Ambororo to evacuate the state. “We have reached, Yangiri Payam, Ezo County heading towards Tambura finding [our] ways to Western Bahr el Ghazal,” he said.

Suleiman cited the slow movement of over 100,000 herds of cattle, 150,000 families and flooding as derailing factors for their early exit.

An SPLA platoon has been approved by WES government to escort marauding nomads towards Nagero within 15 days before commencement of referendum voters’ registration.

Suleiman explained that the Ambororo previously moved to WES just because it had greener pastures for their cattle, and that saw their cattle healthier without tropical diseases.

He reiterated the Ambororo’s position of not having any political agenda in staying or asking for settlement in Western Equatoria state.

However, the state Deputy Governor, Sapana Abui, said that the reason for the evacuation of the nomads from the state is to prepare the state’s citizenry for the upcoming referendum vote.

He further disclosed that, “with the presence of LRA and Ambororo in WES’s forests it has been hard for security organs to distinguish between the two.”

Previously state orders and decrees were passed instructing the Ambororo to go out of WES but fell into deaf ears. The chiefs urged the state government to repeat the same decree for a
period of ten days.

The locals say Ambororo destroy farms, honey combs and small streams in Western Equatoria resulting in environmental degradation.

Meanwhile the Paramount Chief of WES, Wilson Hassan Penyi, stated that, as chiefs, they only recommend the Ambororo to peacefully leave the land without causing them any assault.

The County commissioner of Yambio County, Angelo Bakote, has issued local order to all butchers to slaughter all Ambororo cattle within 21 days, and anybody found battering or trading with the Ambororo will be dealt with in a competent court of law.

The Arab nomads known locally as “Ambororo” majorly come Fulani in West Africa and Falatah in Sudan). They are predominantly from Cameroun, Central Africa Republic, Nigeria, Mali and Sudan.

The name Ambororo is for the Nomads, but the Sudan’s Falatah tribes are believed to be settled in the Blue Nile States, Damazin and Northern Darfur.

In July this year, efforts by the office of the Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny, in the semi-autonomous government of Southern Sudan to settle Ambororo (Arab Nomads) met resistance from the chiefs and the entire population. Similar Arab nomads have been on seasonal moves every year for decades in Southern Sudan.

Last month, a delegation composed of paramount chiefs from Arab nomads living along the North-South borders in the states of Upper Nile and Unity came to Juba and met with the Vice President to assure them of their future after referendum. Dr. Machar told the nomads that the cross-border movement of civilian populations between North and South would not be affected by the outcome of the referendum and called on the nomads not to accept to be negatively used politically by the NCP to destroy such border relations with the South.

Since 2005, series of meetings were held to discuss the status of Ambororo in the state but the meetings’ resolutions were not respected or implemented by Ambororo.

The majority of the population targeted by the Amboro comes from the Zande tribes, which make up a very big percentage of WES population. Traditionally engaged in big farming—the word Zande means “land owners” in the local Pazande language—Zande tribes living in Southern

Sudan and northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, orDRC, have
also been targeted by the LRA.

The Mbororo are nomadic cattle herders originally from Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Mali, and Niger.5 There are many Mbororo groups with different cultures and languages.

Many are Muslims although some groups practice animism. AMbororos arrived in LRA affected areas of CAR, Sudan, and Congo relatively recently.

As nomadic herders, the Ambororo frequently come across the LRA while travelling in the bush in search of pastureland. The grazing patterns of the Mbororo herders have also created tensions with local Zande farmers, who feel their land is threatened by the pastoralists’ cows.

But unlike in Southern Sudan and northeastern Congo, Mbororos in CAR have settled in towns like Mboki and Obo and have intermarried with the Zande.

These marriages are most often unions between Ambororo men and Zande women. Settling might account for the relatively good relationships between the Mbororo and Zande in CAR. This is not the case in Congo and Southern Sudan where the Mbororo are frequently accused of collaborating with the LRA.

(ST)