Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Authorities in Mugali Payam of Magwi County said around 890 households have been displaced by cattle keepers following their attack on the community on April 27, 2022.
“People started arriving on April 27, now they are settled between the border of Mugali and Nimule Payam at Church of Christ in Anzara Boma,” the head chief of Nimule Payam, William Alira, told The City Review during a telephone interview yesterday.
Alira said the cattle keepers started to beat people in Mugali Payam and looted their property including their only few goats.
“One of the suspects (believed to be a cattle keeper) raped a schoolgirl named St. Luck and robbed people of their phones and goats,” said Alira.
The displaced people of Mugali Payam have been sheltering in a church compound since April, said Alira after he and the CID police from Nimule Payam visited the IDPs.
Residents have temporarily abandoned their homes for fear of being attacked by the cattle keepers. Most villages are in Nomassau and Avumadrici.
Last week on Wednesday, the Governor of Eastern Equatoria State, Louis Lobong Lojore, told the Council of States that there was a need to establish a legal framework to guide the movement of cattle in South Sudan to avoid clashes among different cattle-keeping communities.
“The presence of such laws and proper sensitisation of our citizens will be of great importance in preventing clashes between different communities,” he suggested.
He made the statement after he was summoned by the Council of States over the increasing security threats in the Eastern Equatoria State. This is attributed to the encroachment of cattle into Magwi County.
According to Lojore, the organised forces in the states are poorly equipped and that they lack the logistics needed for robust and effective interventions.
Since the beginning of the year, there has been an influx of cattle from Jonglei into the Central Equatoria State and Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria State. The cattle keepers have always insisted that they had been forced by the conditions to migrate to the area.
However, Governor Lobong told the lawmakers last Thursday that he was not informed about the movement of the cattle in the area, “neither by the cattle herders nor by their respective state governments.’’ And, that ‘‘the communities of Eastern Equatoria State were also taken by surprise.”
“They did not know why the herders came to Magwi and what their intention was and for how long they intended to stay,” Lobong said.
According to Lobong, the cattle movement caused panic and fear of the unknown among the communities of Eastern Equatoria and was further escalated into conflict due to harassment by the cattle herders and damage to crops by their cattle.
The majority of the population of South Sudanese are cattle keepers and the population of cattle in the country is said to be more than the human beings, According to the African Development Bank report 2014.
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