A fresh clash on Tuesday between the warring Hiyalla and Hafofriere communities left one man dead and two others with gunshot wounds when they clashed in Tirangore Village of Torit County in Eastern Equatoria State.
Local authorities said the two communities met at a funeral place in Tirangore village and began running battles that ended at a roadside village called New Kenya on the Torit-Kapoeta road. This is the second bloody conflict between the two villages in the last couple of weeks.
Brigadier General Gasmiro Okomos Gaitano, the deputy police commissioner in the now-defunct Torit State called on the state government to intervene before more lives are lost.
“The people of Haforiere, Tirangore, and Hiyalla are one people. It appears there was a funeral in Tirangore that is why those of Hiyalla came to attend and Haforiere also came as a family to attend but with the tensions they had in the past days they started conflicting,” According to Gaitano. “They shot themselves from the residential area up to the roadside in new Kenya until one person was killed, a youth from Haforiere, one injured from Hiyalla and another injured from Tirangore-a businessman on the roadside injured in the crossfire.”
“This problem is now beyond and it has gone out of line, so I am requesting the state government to organize a big force to go and settle in Tirangore and call residents from both sides to discuss the matter. The two kingdoms of Hujang and Mayya, because they are the ones fighting, should be brought in one place to bring peace back home,” Gaitano said.
“This conflict is politically motivated. We have politicians from the area working for the government in Torit or Juba or abroad and they have a hand in this conflict. For us the police we may go and investigate but after returning another conflict will arise. It is difficult.”
Omoli John, the Executive Director of the now-defunct Torit East County, told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that the two injured youth are now receiving treatment in Hiyalla health center.
After fighting erupted last week, the local leaders of the Hujang kingdom and Otuho Peace Taskforce said there was nothing they could do but rather hand the issue to the government to handle.