South Sudan’s co-chair of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC) Deng Mading has called on the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya tribes to participate in a meeting of traditional leaders in Addis Ababa.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Mading said the meeting will try to resolve differences between the two tribes in the contested area.

The high-level meeting between the Dinka Ngok and Misseriya would be the first of its kind between the two sides since the killing of Dinka Paramount Chief Kuol Deng Kuol in May 2013. Dinka Ngok leaders previously demanded his killers be brought to book before any inter-communal dialogue takes place in Addis Ababa.

Mading disclosed that he is visiting Abyei area to carry our wider consultations on how the Ngok Dinka people can participate in the Addis Ababa meeting after the South Sudanese government accepted it. The only way to achieve peace is though dialogue between the two sides in the area, according to the Abyei leader. 

Meanwhile, Dinka Ngok Paramount Chief Bulabek Deng Kuol told Radio Tamazuj this morning that he met with the UN's Abyei mission administration and was told to be ready for the upcoming peace conference between Messeriya and Ngok mediated by AJOC.

However, he said he did not received the information from AJOC-South Sudan whether the peace conference would be possible between the two tribes.

File photo: Bulabek Deng Kuol