Tombura craves for permanent remedy; one visit does not suffice

On Friday, the peace monitoring body called on the government to take full responsibility to end the fighting in Tombura County of Western Equatoria State.

This came after a team comprising the Intergovernmental Authority on Development [IGAD], Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission [RJMEC], and members of the diplomatic mission visited the area.

The visit to the troubled country was geared towards assessing the causes of conflicts and fronting probable remedies for the same.

In their Joint statement, the group said the conflict in Tombura is a looming risk that may escalate and could endanger the vulnerable populations and worsen the dire humanitarian situation as well as a threat to the successful implementation of the peace agreement.

They said there is an urgent need for the separation of forces besides the necessity to undertake dialogue and reconciliation between the communities in Tombura.

This is a serious call to both the state and national government to join hands together to address the root causes of the conflict in Tombura.  This will help to stop further escalation of conflict in the area because the absence of war does not mean peace has already prevailed in Tombura. Yes, the fighting might have stopped for now but it may break out at any time as the situation remains unpredictable.

It is true that the government has taken so long to respond to the inter-communal fighting in Tombura, which started earlier in May 2021. The communities had been fighting for about five months. However, it is still not too late to address the matter despite several innocent lives that have been lost. Now more effort is needed for an urgent resolution of the conflict.

Firstly, the government needs to demilitarise the area by ensuring that all the conflicting forces are removed from the environs of Tombura and the forces that were said to have defected from the SPLA-IO to the SSPDF should be integrated into and assigned to different divisions to avoid further grouping.

Remedies

Likewise, the authorities should ensure that the SPLA-IO  forces are confined in their designated containment site. Then, dialogue and reconciliation can be conducted among the communities when the situation has been calmed down.

Several international partners such as RJMEC, IGAD, and UNMISS  may pay visits to the area but this will not help address the real crisis. Their presence may quell down the tension but the impact is short-lived. It always happens whenever there is a visit in the house,  husband and wife pretend to be good to each other seems they did have a problem before but once the visit leaves they resume their hostile lives.

So, the conflicting communities in Tombura may just pretend to be good while the peace partners continue to visit the area but this will not help address the issues. Therefore, the state and national governments need to take up the responsibility and face the reality with their citizens instead of leaving it to the international community. No visit has ever addressed any conflict in a family.