The chairman of the African National Congress (ANC), a political party in South Sudan, George Kongor Arop, blamed the ongoing communal violence in the country on the proliferation of illegal guns in the hands of civilians and called on the United Nations and partners to support the government in the disarmament process.
Speaking over the weekend during the launch of the party’s Secretariat General Work Plan for 2023 at its headquarters in the capital Juba, Kongor noted that cattle raiding, communal violence, and revenge attacks are mid-wife by the rampant presence of illegal guns in civilian hands.
“To stop this violence, we need to be helped by our partners or through our friends and members of the United Nations to help in disarming the civil population,” Kongor said.
The retired General called on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to provide the necessary equipment to assist the country in effective disarmament.
He said as a UN member state it is the responsibility of both the government and the UN to disarm the civil population. He urged them to provide equipment to collect these arms from civilians before the rainy season.
“It is necessary to provide equipment to collect these arms from civilians before the rainy season if we are to have fair and credible elections at the end of the transitional period,” he added.
Kongor says the government is often criticized by the international community and human rights bodies when it applies forceful disarmament.
South Sudan is packed with illegal guns in the hands of civilians after decades of civil wars.