Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey, a prominent member of the Dinka of Council of Elders has issued a stern and scaring statement, warning that the country could descend into a disastrous war and claiming that members of his ethnic Dinka are subjected to targeted killings on major and strategic routes in the country leading into and out of the national capital, Juba.

The Dinka Council of Elders is accused by the UN Panel of Experts of undermining the peace agreement in South Sudan. In a report to the Security Council earlier this month the panel said that the "tribal organization" is mobilizing opposition to the peace in South Sudan, saying that the council "has been the source of several initiatives to undermine the Agreement."

Now a prominent member of the group has come out with a statement claiming his tribesmen are being victimized by people from another region and warning of possible retaliation. “As directed by armed SPLM-IO, the Dinka now are physically targeted by organised tribal terrorists in Central Equatoria and Western Bahr Al Ghazal. They are being escorted, shot, slaughtered and beheaded every day on the roads between Juba-Yei and Juba-Nimule, in cold blood. This is unacceptable and it has to stop, otherwise the response would be disastrous,” claimed Ajou.

The legislator at the council of states, according to a September 27, 2016, statement which he confirmed on Friday, charged that armed dissidents allied to SPLM-IO on major roads are looking for members of the ethnic Dinka because the president comes from their community to bend their anger in protest of the performance of the government.

“They lay ambushes on the roads, leading out of Juba, looking for travelling families and individuals members of the Dinka community, search passengers in the cars or buses using ghost names like: forbidden-goods, MTN or naked…etc. We are wondering and astonished on what is the cause of this outrageous hatred where innocent civilians are being killed by a rebel army that claims it would introduce freedoms and good governance in the country, if they come to power!”

Aldo Deng's lobby group informally advises President Salva Kiir. The group purports to represent the interest of the Dinka tribe in South Sudan. In his remarks on Tuesday the Dinka politician singled out the Bari tribe of Central Equatoria claiming that there were tensions between his tribe and this tribe.

He said, “We know that there is hidden boiling hatred against Dinka community in Central Equatoria. It cooled off when the South was under the British and the Arab rules, from 1899 to 1972; it warmed up with Southern Sudanese rule from 1972 to 1983; it cooled off again during the SPLM/SPLA war of liberation, from 1983 to 2005. Now the madness or 'kokora' oriented mode of Bari tribal base of hate for the Dinka has awakened, amounting to preach of tribal hatred in bari social clubs, schools, government offices in state of Juba and the Bari Catholic churches in Juba."

Some critics in South Sudan especially the SPLM-IO and other opposition have blamed the Dinka Council of Elders for fomenting a tribal outlook, opposing peace and promoting racial violence in the country. 

Meanwhile, Ajou stressed that his group was not fighting any tribe in the country but would fight back if aggressed. “We are not in war with any tribe in South Sudan. But we can fight if aggressed! The world must know, and it should have already known, that the ongoing war was caused by the ruling party, SPLM, and it is being fought by two factions: SPLM, SPLM IO and FDs political brokers in their midst to promote continuous violence between the two, in an attempt to justify that the war is between Nuer and Dinka.”

“We repeat this is not our war. But the Nuer and Dinka have been fighting their tribal wars, resulting from social interactions and vital disagreements regarding lands, boundaries, water centers and seasonal gathering where their cows meet to share grazing and watering of their animals.”

He said elders from both sides always intervene to end the fighting and bring about traditional healing and reconciliation. “By our shared traditions, rules and regulations, the war ends here. People mixed and forgive one another and "less they forget." Once the same disagreement erupts, fighting occurs. Between the Nuer and Dinka, the word 'enemies' do not exist. But it seems the politicians have developed it.”