The residents of Alali Payam in Akobo County of Jonglei State are in dire humanitarian situation following last month’s attack, local leaders have said.
The Akobo Anyuak community leaders said that though the attack happened last month, the situation remained dire.
Heavily armed Lou Nuer gangs attacked the Alali Payam headquarters on May 18, looting foodstuff and other personal belongings and burnt several homes, leaving hundreds homeless in the area neighboring Ethiopia where they were seeking refuge.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj, a local Anyuak community leader and a former state assembly legislator, John Opiew Olok, said it was a month since the attack, but the situation remained dire.
He said the Lou Nuer youth struck on May 18 and looted food items and burnt some grain stores, leaving the area deserted.
Olok added that the local residents were in a dire situation near the border with Ethiopia.
He said the attackers from Akobo town had continually targeted Alali with impunity, adding that the area has since 2013 been deprived of critical services because the access to it had been blocked. Akobo and Alali were now only accessible through Pochalla or Ethiopia.
The community leader called on the Jonglei State authorities and the development partners to assess the humanitarian situation and facilitate the repatriation of the Anyuak population and provide the much-needed food aid and healthcare services. He accused the County commissioner of neglecting and refusing to cooperate with the Anyuak people.
County Commissioner Puok Nyang Tutjiek admitted that the situation in Alali was dire, adding that his attempts to get humanitarians aid had been unsuccessful. He blamed the recent attacks, which left Alali deserted, on assailants he said were still at large.
“In early May, some criminals from Lou Nuer attacked Likuangole, taking seven children and some few cattle. Because they were only between 150 to 200, they feared retaliation and so used the longer Pochalla route, following the Akobo River.
“However, while on the Ethiopian side of the border, they were attacked and defeated by the Anyuak, and all their cattle and the five children taken from them,” Tutjiek explained.
The Commissioner condemned the looting of Alali and said he would engage humanitarian agencies for assistance.
“When those youth arrived Akobo town, we tried to recover the looted items unsuccessfully. The Situation in Alali is dire and I want them to be assisted. If I get access through UNMISS, I would want to be airlifted to Alali because it has been cut off from the rest of the county,” he said.