The authorities in Mvolo County in Western Equatoria State over the weekend said the area has received less than normal rainfall which has caused insufficient food production.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, John Abdallah, the County Executive Director who is momentarily acting as the commissioner, said the rains were delayed and were poor when they started and that the area is likely to be food insecure this season. He said the local population will now depend on livestock for survival.
The official also revealed that the roads in the county are in a sorry state, resulting in poor connectivity between the payams and poor delivery of services like health, education, and safe drinking water.
“The communities at the grassroots have one season of cultivation in a year yet the rains started in late May and now people are still planting while other counties are harvesting groundnuts and maize. Secondly, in all the payams within Mvolo County, roads are not so good and you cannot move between payams using a vehicle,” Adballah lamented. “Thirdly, most of payams have problems in terms of access to services from organizations due to lack of a good road network. Hopefully, with time, we shall solve these issues and our people get the services they need.”
When asked about security, the official disclosed that cattle raids between Mvolo County and Mapuridit in Lake State have ceased and security has greatly improved since the two communities have dialogue to address the issue. He said the citizens of Mvolo are peaceful people.
“This problem of cattle raids has significantly reduced because I arrived here on 21 October 2021 but I have never heard of shooting or about killings since Lake State Governor Riny Tueny came to power,” he explained. “This is because Governor Tueny and the former commissioner of Mvolo initiated a dialogue between the two states and it was successful.”