Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The clashes at the internally displaced person’s camp in Juba that left two people dead and eight wounded on Sunday have allegedly spread to the grassroots community in the Pibor Administrative Area.
Pastor Jobi Ochalla told The City Review on Wednesday by phone from the capital, Juba, that reliable sources at the scene confirmed the incident that happened early Wednesday morning.
According to Pastor Ochalla, simultaneous attacks on two villages in Pochalla County and Ethiopian side were carried out by suspected Murle armed youth.
“There were attacks on two villages this morning. One from the side of South Sudan and the other from the side of Ethiopia, which are villages of Anyuak, “Pastor Ochalla said.
“They were few armed Murle youth who attacked the villages.”
However, both the Pibor Administrative Area Minister of Information, Joseph Lilimoy, and the Area Coordinator, John Kuju, denied the information.
“I have not received such a report but,” Lilimoy told The City Review, promising he would verify the information.
Mr. Kuju however, denied this, saying, “It is not true because I have not got the information.”
On Sunday, fighting broke out in an internally displaced camp (IDP) located near Konyo Konyo Market in Juba, allegedly between two rival communities sheltering in the camp. Two people died in the clash.
The majority of those wounded were women and are undergoing treatment at a public hospital in Juba.
While the motives of the ongoing fight remained blurred, Pastor Ochalla said the reason could be traced to the historic relations between the Anyuak and Murle communities.
He pointed out that continuous child and women abductions, looting and killing, and land grabbing, which promoted the Anyuak community to demand self-autonomy from Pibor, sparked the ongoing violence.
“What people want is peace to allow them to recover from the effect of long-suffering due to war.” I call on leaders to investigate the causes and find an amicable solution to the fight so that peace is realized in the area,” said the cleric.
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