Renewed clashes between the Hiyalla and Haforiere communities of Torit County in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State have left one person dead, officials there said.
The two communities have been living in peace since December last year after signing an agreement to end all forms of violence and peaceful coexistence.
Hiyalla Boma Chief John Oromo accused Haforiere youth of killing the young an identified as Ofuho Alfred in the outskirts of the village following an attempted raid on Monday.
“The incident occurred yesterday (Monday) at around 3 Pm. One of the women sent some boys to the bush for some work. The boys met Haforiere boys near the village and they started to shoot at the boys. They were repulsed and chased,” Oromo explained. “The monyiemiji heard the sound of a gun and rushed to the scene but in the process, they fell in an ambush of Haforiere youth who came from the village leading to the death of our boy by name Ofuho Alfred.”
Commissioner Oromo warned, “If the government doesn’t intervene in this matter, the conflict will arise again which will be bad. I informed the commissioner already.”
Meanwhile, the Tirangore Boma Chief Mr. Sanabio Tiya confirmed the clashes but accused Hiyalla youth of attempting to raid before leading to the clashes.
“The youth of Haforiere were grazing their cattle in the bush but the youth of Hiyalla attacked them leading to the clashes in the bush there. One got killed from Hiyalla at Haforiere territory,” he claimed.
Chief Tiya called on the youth to remain in their territories and when necessary defend them from raids.
Torit County Commissioner Jacob Attari Albano also confirmed the incident and said the two communities resumed cattle raiding activities and demanded that the two communities return stolen animals.
“I am still calling on the Monyiemiji of Hiyalla to come out and give us the 30 herds of cattle from the criminals, then from there, I will also ask the Monyiemiji of Haforiere who are with the goats now. They said they will give back when their cattle are returned then from there we shall settle this case,” he added.
Martin Asaha, the spokesperson for the Otuho Hujang Kingdom peace and reconciliation committee, expressed frustration over the return to conflict between the two villages.
“This is something threatening the lives of the people. We always believe community dialogue is a priority, however, things continue to happen. We will continue to advocate so that the mindset of our people will be changed from revenge killing to peace and development, this is our observation but we condemn this,” he said.