S. Sudan’s Bor-Murle peace conference to begin in Juba: says committee
May 17, 2017 (JUBA) – The high-level committee mediating between feuding South Sudan’s Dinka Bor and Murle communities in Jonglei region said peace conference will commence on Friday in Juba.
“The governors of Jonglei State [Philip Aguer] and Boma State [Sultan Ismail Konyi] will come and meet here in Juba on Friday and cessation of hostilities agreement will be signed on Monday [May 22],” said Information and Broadcasting Minister Michael Makuei Lueth.
“The communities will then enter a dialogue and agree within one month on permanently ending the conflict,” Makuei, who is also a member of the delegation, told reporters after the meeting with President Kiir in State House, J1.
The peace committee was set up early this month when armed Dinka Bor youth entered Murle villages in Boma state purportedly to recover abducted children and stolen cattle.
Bor accused Murle tribesmen of engaging in child abduction and cattle raiding on neighbouring communities. Boma officials agreed to return stolen children and cattle but Bor youths were impatient to wait.
The peace conference is meant to address the decades-long insecurity in the then Jonglei state, now divided into Boma, Jonglei, Fangak, Western and Eastern Biech States along ethnic lines.
All the five states and communities of Dinka Bor, Murle, Nue, Anyuak, Jie and Kachipo that constituted the province will attend the conference in Juba.
The peace committee made little headway during the trips to Bor and Pibor last week but Bor youths announced their withdrawal from Boma state villages on Tuesday.
(ST)