The governor of Eastern Equatoria State has revealed plans to initiate a peace dialogue between pastoralists, mostly from Jonglei State, and the communities in Magwi County.
Governor Louis Lobong Lojore said this during a visit to Magwi County over the weekend to access areas occupied by cattle and pledged that his government will respect the outcome of the talks.
“We have scheduled a meeting between them (pastoralists) and the community here (Magwi) to dialogue whether the communities will allow them to graze for this time or not,” Governor Lobong said. “It depends on the community. If the community says they should go, we will definitely ask them to leave. If the community allows them to graze for a period of time in a specific area, we have no objection as a government. These are our people and the livestock are ours of South Sudan.”
He however directed the cattle herders to keep their cattle away from residential areas and farms and cautioned the herders to recognize that movement with guns creates panic among civilians.
“We have strongly told them how they should behave here in Eastern Equatoria. The cattle should not go near the settlement of the people, the residential areas, the cattle should not go to the gardens where the people are cultivating,” Lobong directed. “They should not go to places like schools, health facilities and they should not move with the guns in the villages. These are the directives we have told them and they agreed to abide by that.”
For his part, Aldo Ojjara Aquilino, the Paramount chief of Magwi County, welcomed the plans for dialogue saying it will boost farming and improve security in the county.
“The cattle keepers and the farmers have to sit down and the opinion has to come from the farmers about what they think about these cattle which have come to their area,” Chief Ojjara said. “We want to know why they are coming here and if they can be evacuated because the time for cultivation is nearing so cattle cannot be with farmers. Whatever you cultivate, the cattle will consume and destroy. So, it is not good to stay with cattle.”
Meanwhile, Thon Alier, a cattle keeper in Magwi County, in a telephone interview expressed their readiness to engage in dialogue but said they had no information about it and warned of attacks on their cattle camps.
“For us to be involved in dialogue, he must first be informed. But we are ready to talk,” Alier said. “Also, some people here have attacked our cattle camps in the past and they have been hostile towards us. If this dialogue is really for peace, we the cattle keepers will accept to dialogue.”