The South Sudan Council of Churches has initiated a plan for peace and reconciliation in Ikotos County of Eastern Equatoria State, where innocent lives were lost due to inter-communal conflicts and cattle raids.
Speaking after a meeting with local community leaders and politicians from Ikotos in Torit town on Friday, Fr. Peter Ben Louis, a Catholic priest at St. Theresa Isohe Parish of Torit Diocese, said they have called Ikotos County leaders together to talk about peace by drawing a road map to handle the crisis in the area.
“We agreed that all our politicians, opinion leaders, elders in the county to converge on Monday for a two-day retreat from 15th to the 16th; then after that, there will be a journey to Ikotos to Isoke to also get the second stage of this reconciliation that is to meet the stakeholders,” Fr. Louis told Radio Tamazuj.
Father Luis described the continuous attack on citizens in the area as alarming.
“It is a very alarming situation, so painful that is why we are taking the lead to make sure that this is brought to an end because there is no way the church will continue to watch things getting out of hand and am also grateful to our political leaders who are also ready. It was a clear indication that our leaders are ready to be together to share difference so that they come with one voice no to violence and yes to peace,” he said.
Fr. Louis further called on the warring communities to deescalate all forms of tensions and give a chance for peace to return to the area.
“Let this be very clear to the people on the ground that there should be no further killings, cattle raiding, robbing of people’s properties, burning of houses. This is our message let them be patient,” Fr. Louis stressed.
Meanwhile, Rev Bishop Joswa Lokurudek of the Evangelical Grace Gospel Church and the Chairperson for the Network of Pastors in Eastern Equatoria called on the people of Greater Ikotos to stop the violence.
“We are urging them to stop this because this violence cannot take them anywhere. The bible say never pay back evil with evil and to anyone respect what is right in the sight of all men and be at peace with all men, so we are calling our communities, our youth chiefs, elders, church leaders, MPs, and politicians let us join our hands together and bring total peace to Ikotos County,” Rev. Joswa said.
William Okot De Tobby the Chairperson for Greater Ikotos Community, expressed anger over the ongoing crises in the area.
He blames members of the community there for instigating the conflicts.
“It is us to put a stop to this crisis, and we have come as leaders under the umbrella of the church who are leading us in this peace talks that we need to come and go on the ground, so we are in a move. We came from Juba and met the political leaders in Torit, and the meeting was very good. People were together in mind and promised to act together, so we will be going to the ground to meet, especially the two communities who were fighting among themselves although not in a clear way, there are killings by unknown gunmen you don’t know who are these doing these,” De Tobby said.