Members of the Anyuak community are demanding their own state in the greater Jonglei region, the president’s office has said.

This came after a group of traditional leaders from the Anyuak community met with President Salva Kiir in Juba on Saturday. The delegation of the Anyuak community leaders was headed by Nyeye Akway Nyigwo Akway.

The president’s spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Radio Tamazuj on Monday that the Anyuak community leaders requested President Salva Kiir to give them a separate state in Jonglei region.

Ateny said the Anyuak ethnic group was one of the communities that responded to the disarmament exercise and that they requested President Kiir to protect them from neighboring communities.

According to the presidential spokesman, Kiir vowed to address a number of issues affecting the Anyuak community such as lack of basic services. He added that the demand for the creation of a separate state for the Anyuak community was put on hold by Kiir to allow the implementation of the peace agreement.

For his part, David Okwer, a legislator representing Pochalla in the national legislative assembly, said the delegation demanded for a separate state in order to address the problems facing the community.

 “During the meeting, the community leaders outlined insecurity in Anyuak areas, lack of mobile networks, education and health services, and poor roads to connect greater Pochalla to the rest of the country as some of the problems facing the community,” he said.

He added, “In order to end the suffering of the community, they requested the president to create a separate state, and the president responded that he may create a state next year if the impasse over the number of states with the opposition is addressed”.

Okwer further revealed the traditional leaders were given 10 satellite phones.