Maridi County Commissioner Wilson Thomas Yanga says that calm has returned to the county after weeks of tension and clashes between locals and migrants pastoralists, sparked by a grenade explosion at a cattle camp.
Speaking on Wednesday, he said that many civilians who fled have already come back to their homes, and that most schools reopened and children have started going to school.
He acknowledged that Suk Wat Wat and Maridi Girls Boarding Secondary School for Sciences which were in the conflict-affected remain closed, but he noted that the county has arranged to station forces in the area so that the school and market can operate.
The commissioner is calling on all the civilians who fled to neighboring counties like Mvolo, Yambio and Ibba to come back home saying the situation is now calm with a patrol team patrolling the town day and night.
As to the 36 Maridi youths who were abducted by a military unit and taken to Juba, Wilson said that there is no clear information about them and no focal person to follow the issue.