The Toposa and Lopit communities in South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria State have agreed to live in peace and stop all forms of violence, including raids.

The resolution was made during a peace and reconciliation dialogue meeting on Monday. The truce comes after a series of killings that led to the death of nine people and left one with serious injuries last week.

The two-day event, organized by both the Imehejek Administrative Area and Kapoeta North governments, brought hundreds of youths from the Toposa and Lopit in Lohutok Payam. 

Several dialogues in recent years have been held to reconcile the Toposa of Kapoeta North and the Otuho of Lopit, but killings and raids have persisted.

Paul Ahatar, a youth from Lalanga village, told Radio Tamazuj that the dialogue reached peace by stopping all forms of violence in the area.

"We agreed no more killings, and those who are involved in killing must compensate cattle and will be arrested and jailed. We also resolved to end cattle thefts and raids, and if anyone violates the agreement, he will be in the hands of the government. We want to live in peace so that we stay together so that children can get meat from Toposa; we told Toposa to graze here freely. We have enough grass with few cattle," he said.

Lokitoe Lokorae, one of the Toposa cattle herders who attended the dialogue, said they both resolve to live amicably with their neighbours. 

"I accept peace, and I want real peace. I am happy with the people of this mountain and with those in the kraals. I need peace; we talked about unnecessary killings of people and why the Otuho of Lopit killed our people from Lohutok and Lalanga," Lokitoe said.

Mathew Oromo, the Chief Administrator for the Imehejek Administrative Area, confirmed the resolutions and said the dialogue resolved to host another reconciliation conference at Imehejek headquarters to be attended by both Lopit and Toposa.

Asked about how different the new peace initiatives were from the previous ones, Oromo said, "Yes, it is true. Normally, we hold dialogues, but some people violate them. When we ask Toposa's side, they will say these are criminals and that is true. No Lopit went to the side of Riwoto any day to raid and kill, but they are the ones coming and stealing our animals. Now, we are making peace and reconciliation in Lohutok and Lalanga, and yesterday (Sunday), one of the people from Imehejek was killed, and now the Monyomiji are still following the footmarks, and the footmarks are going towards their direction. I told them in the conference to help us trace this so that these people are arrested so they do not become obstacles to our peace."

"My message to the youth of Lopit and Toposa is that we have to take this peace in our hearts, and it should be real peace so that tomorrow we don't hear that something has happened in another area. We need to do things that help us, like business, and we need to develop our areas. We pray that this peace moves across Lopit and Toposa. The issue was worrying, and we feared maybe the Lopit in Riwoto would be killed, and now we are happy, "he added.