Local authorities in Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria State, have reported a high influx of cattle in the area and warned of possible conflict between the local farmers and nomadic pastoralists.
David Otto Remson, the Magwi County commissioner, told Radio Tamazuj Friday that the latest influx of cattle in the area is threatening security and farming activities among the local communities.
‘’We are having a lot of cattle coming back again to settle in Magwi from the Nyolo side, Kerepi, and up to Achwa. They are all along the road. I think this is normally an obvious thing, they are coming from Bor because there are no cattle coming from anywhere else,” Commissioner Otto said. “My county is the area of the green belt where agriculture takes place and we produce food which is enough for the county, the state, and even for Juba.”
He added: “Their presence in the area is affecting our crops and is also threatening the security of the area.”
The commissioner appealed to the state and national governments to intervene in ensuring the cattle herders return to their original places.
For his part, Peter Otim Karlo, a member of parliament in the state legislative assembly representing Magwi, said several orders have been issued in the past directing cattle herders to return to their homes but have never been implemented.
“My problem is that some of the crops of the farmers are still in the field and the cattle will destroy them. This is my fear. There will be a lot of hunger in the area and as you know people will start cultivating again in April,” Otim lamented. “It is the government to do something, I only raise the motion in parliament. I represent the will of the people and then it goes to the media.”
He added: “If parliament was in session, I would have raised the issue in the house because the people have been crying and they have become vulnerable.”
Thon Alier, one of the leaders of the cattle keepers in Magwi County, declined to comment when contacted on the telephone.
The Magwi County youth leader, Ocholla Bosco Ongee, said the pastoralists are heavily armed that this was scaring refugees from returning to the area.
“At the beginning of this year, we have seen a lot of influx of these cattle keepers coming on a daily basis, especially in the areas of Nyolo, and Ayici, and they are even heavily armed,” Ongee said. “We do not know their exact intention of coming and the way they are coming with arms is causing a lot of fear, especially to our people who are coming back from the refugee camps.”
In 2017, President Salva Kiir issued a presidential order for cattle owners to go back to their respective homelands.
In February 2019, local authorities in Magwi County demanded that cattle be evacuated from the area after a local chief was killed and three youth disappeared and called for government intervention to defuse simmering tensions between farmers and pastoralists.
In June 2020, authorities in the Pageri area confirmed the withdrawal of cattle as part of resolutions that were reached between pastoralists and local farmers during a dialogue that took place in March 2020.
In May 2021, six people were killed after armed men in military uniform stormed a cattle camp in Acwa, Pageri Payam, Magwi County, and raided 3,750 head of cattle.