Rumbek: One person killed in suspected revenge attack
March 18, 2014 (RUMBEK) – One person was killed in remote village of Rumbek East County of Lakes state on Tuesday in what the authorities suspect is a revenge killing in connection to the killing of two teachers in August last year.
In August 2013, two teachers, Dut Makur Temthok, a headmaster of the local Mathiang primary school, and his deputy Malual Mayom Ayuop, were killed in same school during a inter-communal revenge attack between pastoralist youth from Pamany, a sub-section of the Kok Dinka tribe.
Kachuol Majuong Kachuol, the chairman of the South Sudan Teachers Professional Union condemned the murder and said more needs to be done to protect teachers.
“If you kill a teacher, you are fighting the nation,” said Majuong.
Majuong called upon Lakes state authorities to apprehend the suspects in the murder of the teachers. So far the Lakes state government has failed to bring any suspects to face justice.
On Tuesday at remote village of Ayenmayar, one person was killed by armed men who were suspected of carrying out a revenge attack.
Eyewitness told Sudan Tribune that “today there was fighting in Ayen-mayar and one person was confirmed dead. It seems to be that guy who killed teachers last year in Mathiang primary school being killed today.”
Lakes state’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) confirmed the incident.
The officer, who requested anonymity, said that civilians have resumed their cycle of revenge attacks. He warned that poor relations between the government and many of the state’s communities meant that the police were not being given good information.
Lakes state’s youth are very unfaithful to the government of caretaker Governor Matur Chut Dhuol, who was appointed to replace the elected governor Chol Tong Mayay in January 2013.
After the deaths in August last year at Mathiang primary school, Governor Dhuol ordered the closure of 23 primary schools.
Traditional chiefs, students and activists have called on President Salva Kiir to remove Governor Dhuol, but the public’s demands have so far been overlooked. Under South Sudan’s constitution, an election should be held within 90 days, in the event that the president removes a state governor from office.
In the three states where governors were removed in 2013 this has yet to occur and there are no indications that elections will be held before the general elections due for 2015.
Inter-clan clashes have intensified in Lakes state over the past week, with 34 people reportedly killed and more than 20 people injured after violence broke out at a remote cattle camp at Wunthou in Tiaptiap payam [district] about 80km from Cueibet.
Sticks and firearms were used during the clashes between the Waat and Panyar clans of the Dinka Gok tribe, with a dispute about a girl blamed for triggering the incident.
Pakam community elders from Rumbek North’s Maper county in Lakes state held a meeting in the South Sudan capital, Juba, on Friday following the outbreak of inter-clan clashes in the region.
Pakam leaders have urged youths in Rumbek North to immediately disengage from clashes, calling on pastoralist youths to apologise to each another without precondition.
The meeting, which was chaired by Pakam elders Peter Muoranyar Biet and Daniel Deng Monydit, who represents Rumbek North in the national parliament, was called as part of efforts to calm tensions in the area.
Biet said the region’s youth must live together as one community and not resort to violence to solve their problems.
Tensions flared at the Yhaga cattle camp between members of the Gaak and Manuer sub-clans last week reportedly over a dispute about a girl.
Nine people were killed during the clashes, with another four admitted to hospital for treatment after suffering gunshot wounds.
Rumbek North MP Marik Nanga Marik later described the incident as “regrettable”.
According to Monydit, last week’s clashes marked the first time youth pastoralists from the Gaak and Manuer sub-clans had turned on each other.
(ST)