Payinjiar county win friendly football match competition in Lakes state
June 7, 2013 (KAMPALA) – A two day peace and reconciliation football tournament facilitated by AECOM International in Lakes state between Payinjiar county of Unity state and the Rumbek counties of Lakes state ended successfully last week, according to officials.
This is the first time a football team from Payinjiar county had travelled to play against their neighbours across the tense inter-state border.
The tournament’s aim was to bringing youth from the communities together to enable interaction that might help build understanding between the communities, which regularly suffer from cattle raiding along their common borders.
On Saturday Payinjiar football team defeated Rumbek 2-1 in the final of the friendly football tournament which was initiated by officials from both states, Simon Chuol Biel the Payinjiar county commissioner told Sudan Tribune on Sunday.
Commissioner Biel said the football competition was part of a reconciliation and nation building process. Through this initiative, he said, youth from across country will be in a position to act as peacebuilders, to help the nation recover from the decades of civil war that preceded South Sudan’s independence in 2011.
Biel urged counties on the Lake-Unity border to work improve relations between communities and facilitating movement across the tense boundary.
He added that Dinka and Nuer tribes in South Sudan historically share many traditions and customs.
“It is not only we share values in common to preach peace in this country, but we are working as the government officials to improve the status of this broken heart felt South Sudan into peace loving nations”, commissioner Biel told Sudan Tribune.
Speaking after the match, Biel urged youths across the countrywide to distance themselves from criminal activities in order for fundamental development to take place in South Sudan.
He urged youths from Unity state to act as examples of in promoting peace within their society member and to the entirely nation. The commissioner called for the immediate end of the practice of cattle raiding.
(ST)