Yakani appeals to government to halt Pibor clashes

A civil society activist has called on the government to quickly intervene in the Pibor Administrative Area situation and end the reoccurrence of violence.

Pibor Youth Secretary General for external affairs David Nyiro told the City Review that fighting erupted when youth drawn from rival communities from Gawaar and Jonglei attached areas of Nanaam Kongor and Tanginyar clashed due to cattle rustling.

The executive director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Edmond Yakani said the government has been silent on the Pibor crisis since the violence began two weeks ago.

“Right now, violence is still going on for the last five days. People have been displaced and there is no response from both national or state leadership. So, we are calling on the national and state agencies to respond because we have seen only media report about it,” he said.

“My personal text with the ongoing violence is that I don’t blame the communities, I blame political elites of these communities who causing violence as a card to climb the leather for political power,” he said.

Fuelling violence

Mr. Yakani said political leaders take advantage whenever violence sparks in communities for their personal gain, adding that they (politicians) are supplying weapons to fuel conflict in communities.

“I reached out to a conviction that we need also to reach out to Jonglei and Pibor and sort this with the intellectuals, communities are just victims of dirty politics,” he stressed.

He added that most of the elites who are instigating violence are based in Juba planning to cause violence at the grassroot level.

In January 2021, during the peace conference for Jonglei and Pibor Administrative Area, President Kiir stated that he would not send any troops to intervene in the Jonglei and Pibor communal conflict if they persist fighting.

“In the peace conference for Jonglei and Pibor Mr. President Kiir said next time if they go back to violence after the event [they should know] that he had washed his hands. Let them fight until the weaker one comes to him in state house then he will protect them and I think the statement might have [motivated] the state agencies in preventing the violence,” the leader recalled.

Yakani further appealed to the president reconsider the current situation arguing it was his constitutional obligation to protect the civilians.

“It is a primary responsibility of the state to make sure there is safety and protection of individuals and community is a priority of the government,” he expressed.

The civil society leader expressed deep concerns that what was happening in Pibor was no longer termed as communal conflict but rather a situation which might lead to ethnic cleansing and looming genocidal cycle.

The external youth Secretary David Nyiro said, though calm had returned to the area, humanitarian crisis was looming after many people were displaced during the clashes.

‘‘The humanitarian situation is now worse because many houses were burnt and vandalised. So, we are calling on organisations to deliver both food and non food items to the area. People there are really in dire need,” Nyiro said.

According to a joint report released in March 2021, the OHCHR and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called on the South Sudan government to hold to account, not just those who committed the killings and abductions, but also local chiefs and military and political leaders who fuelled intercommunal violence and supplied weapons to local militias.