South Sudan on Friday said it had extended the state of emergency in four restive states until 2018 to curb the recent spike in rival communities and clan-based violence amid ongoing disarmament.
Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told newsmen in Juba that President Salva Kiir extended the State of emergency to three more months in the northern states of Wau, Tonj, Gogrial and Aweil.
“The President on Thursday, extended state of emergency in four states. The reason is disarmament and conflicts between communities in these areas,’’ Ateny said in Juba. The state of emergency was initially declared in July in the war-torn country which covers president Kiir’s home area of Gogrial. At Gogrial, two rival ethnic Dinka clans of the Apuk and Gwok have continued to clash amid killings, cattle theft and displacements. “In Gogrial, the conflict is between the Agwok and Apuk clans and Wau is fighting between rival communities,’’ Ateny disclosed.
Rival ethnic violence over local resources continues and the presidential directive to create 28 more states from the previous 10 in 2015 seems to have further intensified intermittent violence among rival armed communities. Report says rival ethnic violence usually involves child abductions and cattle raiding.
In May, the Dinka and Murle pastoral communities signed peace agreement, following violence between the North-Eastern Jonglei and Pibor areas near the Ethiopian border. Also, UN reported that over 25 people were killed and 27 wounded in the Western Gok state during rival clan clashes. In spite the ongoing disarmament efforts, South Sudan which won independence from Sudan in 2011remains awash with small illegal guns in the hands of the public.
The politic violence has left soldiers to fight alongside ethnic lines between the two major rival ethnic groups; Dinka and Nuer. The 2015 peace agreement to end the conflict was weakened after the outbreak of renewed fighting in July 2016 which caused the SPLA’s opposition rebel leader Machar to flee the capital.
vanguardngr.com
