South Sudan calls for quick humanitarian response to Jonglei’s conflict
By Ngor Arol Garang
January 1, 2012 (JUBA) — South Sudan on Sunday called for an immediate humanitarian response to Jonglei conflict, where local authorities say over hundred have been killed and thousands displaced in clashes between the rival Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic groups.
“There is nothing left. Everything has been taken away and the whole Pibor town has been set on fire. The town is burning and a lot of people, most of them innocent children and women are just lying before me dead”, Pibor county Commissioner Joshua Konyi, told Sudan Tribune by phone from Pibor town on Sunday evening.
“Just before me in where I am talking to you, I am seeing five people lying dead. Three of them are children. The fourth is the pregnant mother whose four year old child is among the dead. The other one is seriously wounded as this child was shot in the head and stomach,” Konyi said in a seemingly aggrieved voice.
He said he has nothing to give the wounded children as there was no doctors or medical teams in the town.
“The town is empty. There are no medical personnel. The only clinic run by Medicine Sans Frontiers is looted and set on fire”, said Commissioner Konyi.
He said that he just flew into the area from the state capital Bor, where he was meeting Governor Kuol Manyang Juuk and other senior government officials over the situation in town. He was also able to visit Linkuongole by the United Nations helicopter before his flight finally landed at Pibor airstrip.
“I have not even taken tour of this town,” he said referring to Pibor. “I just came today from Bor where I had meeting with governor and other officials over this development.”
“While I was coming to Pibor, I visited Linkuangole. That area is deserted. There are no people there. Those who were there have either been killed or fled with wounds,” he said.
Konyi explained it was too early to provide any information about dead or those who sustained injuries. However, he estimates that a lot of people, possibly over 700 to 800 may have been killed.
“Dead bodies are lying everywhere. If five people are lying dead in where I am now, what you do think may have happened in the town or in other places which have been attacked,” he asked.
ASSAILANTS ARE STILL IN PIBOR
He denied reports that the assailant groups were withdrawing from the area but were still there in the area allegedly killing anybody they find and who was not able for any reason to flee the area.
“They are still around as I am talking to you. Don’t you hear the sound of gun,” he wondered.
He said that assailant from the Lou Nuer youth are still in Lukurnyang.
“They are using it as their base. Some of them are just returning from Partet and Lotila, where they extended their operation this morning. They are doing it systemically, that is Payam to Payam and village to village,” he said, explaining that SPLA forces on the ground have been “overwhelmed” by the group.
Lise Grande, the United Nations’ country humanitarian coordinator said in a separate interview that she learnt from authorities that Lou Nuer were withdrawing from the area but that situation there was “fluid”.
Joseph Lual Acuil, the country’s minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, said in another interview that it was time for humanitarian agencies to assembly and rally behind government efforts to response to what he described as “emerging humanitarian crisis” in Jonglei State.
“This is the high time we all need to put our acts together so that we response to this emerging humanitarian crisis in Jonglei. We need to pay much attention to vulnerable groups most of whom are always children and women as well as elderly people who have now been displaced by this conflict”, the minister said.
He said vice president is already spearheading initiatives to calm the situation down so that two rivaling groups cease hostilities and give humanitarian agencies a chance to response to the affected victims in the areas.
“As ministry, he said, “we are facing a lot of challenges but we will go on Monday to assess the humanitarian situation in the affected areas”.
The minister wondered why the national staff members working for international humanitarian organisations in the area fled, arguing they should have remained to give accurate information.
“The national staff members who are from South Sudan have a duty to stay in affected areas so that they are able to collect correct information which can be used by the organisation for which they work, so that this information can help them during emergency response”, he said explaining that the ministry would check the kind of national staff members employed by agencies in this area.
(ST)