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JUBA - 13 Aug 2019

National dialogue committee, Jubek communities hold consultative meeting

Members of the national dialogue committee and representatives of Jubek State communities held a meeting last Friday to discuss how best cattle herders from Jonglei State can peacefully vacate Central Equatoria areas.

Speaking to reporters in Juba after the meeting, Lual Achuek, a committee member, said the meeting sought joint efforts to find the best solution for the cattle herders to exit the region without return.

He said they also discussed how a dialogue can be organized between cattle herders from Jonglei State and host communities in Central Equatoria to discuss ways of facilitating the return of herders.

Achuek noted that the initiative they undertook was in line with recommendations of the Greater Upper Nile regional conference.

Lado Tombe, the chairman of the Central Equatoria committee, said herders from Jonglei are still returning to Central Equatoria with their livestock, despite previous initiatives of Jubek State authorities to control them.

He said lack of funds hampered the facilitation of herders’ return to their areas of origin, which has been postponed from September to the coming months.

"We have provided a budget to UNMISS, but the UN works according to their programs, not state programs and so the conference budget has been extended," Tombe said.

In 2017, President Salva Kiir ordered cattle keepers from Jonglei state who graze their animals in parts of Equatoria to return home as farmers in the region complain about cattle destroying their crops.