President Salva Kiir’s “Amadi state” has gone ghost!

By Richard K. Mulla

While the handful of Kiir’s loyalists in Juba celebrate the so called creation of their state, the actual population of the state has deserted all the towns and villages and ran to the bush. It is since two months when the citizens of the so called Amadi state have been living in the bushes with the animals. They have abandoned their locations to Kiir’s marauding forces. Reports say that the civilians prefer sharing the bushes with the animals than sharing the towns with Kiir’s murderous forces and vandals.

The towns and localities of Jambo, Buagyi, Langyi, Lui, Mundri, Kotobi, Mbara, Gulu, Amadi, Dosso, Wandi, Kediba and Minga are all devoid of people with the exception of Kiir’s wild soldiers who are roaming along the roads looking for chicken, goats, clothes, household utensils, beddings and pieces of corrugated iron sheets being removed from the roofs of churches, shops, clinics, schools etc. for immediate consumption or onward transfer to their original localities in Baher El Ghazal and Bor.

On the other hand, life in the bushes is very tough. People are living under the rains with no shelter, no food, no medicines and all the basics. The remnants of salt and soap which they had taken with them are all finished. They are totally dependent on wild plants and fruits. The other day, two women appeared near Mundri to fetch some cassava roots from their gardens for their families, but they were immediately gunned down by Kiir’s forces.

The questions are, is there any cause for other South Sudanese to celebrate elsewhere? Can President Kiir pretend to be the real head of state and a former liberator of his people? And which people?

In the circumstances IGAD plus has proven to be too slow and weak for the mission.

Hon. Dr. Richard K. Mulla is the MP of Mundri Constituency. He is currently living in Nairobi.