South Sudan's Eastern Equatoria State and neighboring Turkana County of Kenya have recommitted to maintaining peace and security along the common border in a meeting last week.
Eastern Equatoria state governor, Louis Lobong Lojore speaks to Radio Tamazuj about the meeting in Turkana County and the general situation in his state. Below are edited excerpts:
Q: Governor Lobong, we heard that you engaged in dialogue with your counterpart in Kenya's Turkana county on the issue of the border. Can you confirm this? And what did you discuss?
A: Yes, I have been in Turkana recently and I met with the governor. And we discussed the security situation along the border. We resolved to continue to maintain peace along the border and to initiate reconciliation among different tribes of the two states. We also resolved to encourage our two sisterly communities to embark on business, to share grazing land and water. Our meeting also resolved that the Turkana authorities should work to build a bridge over the Nadapal River, where Customs and Immigration offices are located. Trucks are unable to cross into either side at the moment.
Q: There has been continued dispute over cattle or killings among the neighboring counties. Have you discussed some mechanisms of how to end such incidents?
A: This has been agreed upon a long time ago and it is now clear to residents. Our Toposa of South Sudan are aware of how many cows are paid as compensation for killing a human being or a cow. Our brothers in Turkana are also aware of this development.
Q: Would you like to add any message about your meeting with the Kenyan officials?
A: I would like to clarify some misinformation that went out in the aftermath of our meeting with Turkana officials, that the governor of Eastern Equatoria state has agreed with Kenyan authorities to invest in South Sudan (I am not sure about what exactly that means). I want to deny this information because Eastern Equatoria of South Sudan and Turkana of Kenya have no right to engage in any agreement that is supposed to be taken by the top officials of the two countries.
Our authority is limited to maintaining peace and keeping the neighboring communities in peace and security. Any major dispute over the border should be tackled between the concerned committees from Juba and Nairobi. We don’t have authority over border demarcation of the border between the two nations. So this should be clear to those who misinterpreted the minutes of our meeting with Turkana authorities.
Secondly, some parts of our state might experience famine this year because there was heavy rain that destroyed a lot of farms, and some areas had late rainfall which they could not do much on farming.
Q: Can you mention those areas?
A: Well, there are a lot of places. But I will only mention areas that have not got rain this season. We have Kapoeta East, the rain came late when all the plants have died. The other area is the Lopit of Pari.
Q: What is your message to aid organizations?
A: I would like to appeal to organizations in the area to encourage our local population and provide them with food for work. They should initiate any communal work that serves the community. Be it farming, building schools, houses, roads, and local hospitals. This could be how our people in Eastern Equatoria can be assisted.
Q: What are you doing as the government to assist the people affected by the famine?
A: We are also trying to do what we can. We want to provide security so that traders can take food to those areas so people can buy. We will also encourage them to sell their livestock and then buy food for their families. This is our work. There is a lot of rain in some parts of the state which led to the damage of roads and have displaced about 200 households in Kapoeta North County. Heavy rains have led to the flooding of a local stream which expanded to the neighborhoods.
Q: Governor, you led a team in arresting some individuals whom you said are the main suspects in causing insecurity in the area. Have they been tried in a court of law?
A: I heard that the trials are ongoing. Even yesterday, some of them have been convicted and some are freed after being found not guilty.
Q: How many of them have been convicted and how many have been freed?
A: Out of 29 suspects, seven of them were freed after being identified and proved innocent. Some were fined and others were imprisoned for some years. This is what I heard. It is the jurisdiction of the court and no longer my role.