Government forces are currently occupying houses of citizens who fled due to the conflict in the area of Parajok in South Sudan’s Torit State last year, a local official said.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Saturday, Ayaci County Commissioner Charles Okumu said the army’s move has prevented the population from returning home.
No army barrack, Okumu said, has been established in the area since fighting erupted in Parajok in April 2017, displacing hundreds.
“They have not established a barrack in Parajok. They had only entered into the houses of civilians that are empty. When the civilians came back, they [soldiers] are supposed to leave the houses so that the owners can take over,” said the commissioner.
He added, “But you know with human being there are some people who are so fearful. The same fears that they have about their properties and trauma”.
Okumu, however, said the commander of the army’s brigade 2 of division 7, Brigadier Kulang assured him that soldiers would vacate all civilians’ houses by 5 January, 2019 to allow people to return home.
“Parajok will be empty without any soldier. The soldiers will all move to the border,” stressed the commissioner. He said some returnees voluntarily returned home in August this year.
Okumu, however, decried the poor road network in the county, saying it hinders effective service delivery to people in the area.
“Currently, we have about 486 households and all the population may go to 3, 804. The returnees actually started coming in August this year,” he further stated.
The commissioner urged people to coexist peacefully, harmonize their differences and work together to achieve peace and stability. “We also ask our people in the state to support us morally because our people are traumatized and lack a lot of things,” he said.
In 2017, several thousand people fled Parajok into neighbouring Uganda after attacks. The army was accused of targeting innocent civilians, an accusation it denied.