Lawmakers representing Upper Nile State’s Nasir County in the National legislature have disclosed plans to embark on a peace mission to restore calm in the area.
This comes after several reports of confrontation between armed youth and members of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF), with an incident last week leaving three SSPDF members dead and two others injured by unknown gunmen.
The tensions have been attributed to the lack of trust between SSPDF and the locals, prompting the need for confidence building.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, an SPLM-IO member, Gatwech Lam Puoch, also a member of the committee to be, said they were still mobilizing resources and engaging partners for support.
“We’re on preparation to go, you know the problem of transport and the resources are not available. So, we’re still mobilizing resources to hire a plane,” Lam revealed.
The lawmaker said the committee was also looking at the option of reaching out to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) for logistical support.
Lam said the committee, which is to be headed by the Nasir County Commissioner, James Gatluak Lew Thiep, and members of parliament, would disseminate peace messages and build trust between the civilians and SSPDF.
As conflicts between the Army and armed youth have become rampant in Nasir County, displacing civilians, mainly women and children and causing humanitarian crisis, Puoch said the SSPDF leadership in Juba had also shown willingness to send a committee to Upper Nile.
“The Army team is going for fact-finding. But we will work simultaneously,” he said.