Mundari community calls for disarmament

The representatives of the Mundari community, comprising the 11 Payams of Terekeka County, have called for the disarmament of the civil population.

 The resolution was made in a recent dialogue on the crises affecting the community, where they identified some of the issues that cause conflicts.

Henry Kala Sabuni, the Chairperson of the Independent Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Commission of Central Equatoria State, said they had listed over 20 root causes of the protracted conflicts among the Mundari community.

 “We divided them into groups and we gave them three questions so that they could deliberate on, first was to identify and find out what the root causes are and how we can address them as a Mundari community,” he explained.

He added that the representatives were able to list more than 22 root causes of the conflicts.

He said they identified cattle rustling, which has created tension within the community, leading to cycles of killing.

Sabuni said the second issue raised by the community, was the rampant consumption of drugs and alcohol among young people. He said this has created a thirst for cheap money, which has led to other problems like cattle theft.

“But now our youth in Mundari have endangered themselves in drinking and smoking opium, and this has also created a problem that whenever one is drunk and the mind is intoxicated with drugs, he may take the gun and misuse it,” Sabuni stressed.

“The other issue they raised is the proliferation of guns in the hands of the civilians. Whenever a person has a gun he becomes so powerful and he can do anything he wants.  They also asked for the disarmament of the civilians so that people are left in total peace.”

Sabuni said during the three days of open discussion among the representatives from the Mundari community, they were able to come up with resolutions to address the root causes of the conflict.

“I was so impressed with the discussions because we told them clearly that it is not us who have to come here with the resolutions.” We urged them to come with the solutions because they know the problems and they will be the ones to fix them so that they can leave together”.

They also resolved that all the perpetrators must be arrested so that they can live in peace and unity.

“These people must be arrested with the support of the government. All the roads that were blocked should be reopened and people should be allowed to move freely,” the community stated in their resolution.

They vowed to stop killing among them as well as cattle raiding.