About 19 schools in Rumamer County and surroundings, in the Abyei Administrative Area, were destroyed and vandalized during recent clashes, leaving thousands of pupils displaced.
In February, deadly clashes erupted between youths from the Ngok Dinka of Abyei Administrative Area and the Twic community in Warrap State. The armed Twic youth attacked Aneet market in Abyei setting sections of it on fire and the resultant fighting continued for more than ten days claiming many lives and leaving scores injured.
The director-general in Abyei’s education ministry John Ajang Kiir told Radio Tamazuj the clashes have crippled education in Abyei’s Rumamer County.
“Most of the school children have been displaced and school materials were vandalized, this is the current situation. 19 schools were affected by violence with about 11,000 students being affected too and the most acutely affected area is Rumamer County but Alal and Mijak counties were slightly experiencing damages because they are bordering Rumamer,” he said.
He added, “The stationeries, furniture and cooking equipment were stolen from the schools and locally constructed schools were burned down as per our assessment.”
As an immediate measure, Ajang is calling on local communities to help in the reconstruction of schools to allow children to resume education.
“What we want to do is to engage communities to help in constructing schools using local materials to enable school children to resume their studies,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bith Ajak, a chief and parent, claimed that some soldiers were involved in the destruction.
“The armed youth from Twic County did not leave anything untouched. Even some soldiers from Division 11 of Mayom Anyuon, and Majak Kon were involved because schools of Agok were concrete but windows and materials like books, cupboards were destroyed and stolen,” he said.
In mid-March, the national government sent a committee to investigate the conflict headed by the Vice President for the Service Cluster Hussein Abdalbagi Akol.