A three-day forum for various stakeholders and county commissioners was successfully concluded in South Sudan’s Western Lakes State on Friday last week.
Hundreds of participants attended the forum organized by Oxfam.
Speaking at the closing of the forum in Rumbek, the deputy state governor, Stephen Mathiang Monydit urged the participants to disseminate peace and reconciliation among communities in Western Lakes.
He lauded the national army (SSPDF) for helping the police to reduce crimes such as road ambushes, communal violence, cattle raiding and revenge killings that have claimed many lives.
The official further appealed to the participants to disseminate the state policy on reforms to all the government institutions and organs.
He said corruption and mismanagement of resources will be fought.
Rajab Mohandis, the Executive Director for the Organization for Responsive Governance, urged the state to implement all the recommendations from the three-day conference.
“In this multi-stakeholders forum, there are resolutions agreed upon and signed by local authorities and those resolutions will soon be evaluated after they are implemented,” he said.
Mohandis further said still there are differences between the statutory courts and customary courts, which currently exist in Western Lakes State.
He said the little resources spent by the government on the national army should be used to construct more boreholes and other water sources to prevent inter-communal violence and promote peace.
“Spending resources on heavy deployment of military when there is extreme inter-communal violence in the state is very costly to the national government. These resources could instead be used to dig more boreholes and water catchments which can help prevent inter-communal violence and promote peace in Western Lakes State, particularly during the dry seasons,” Mohandis stressed.
Meanwhile, Kout Kuonin Kuer, the Executive Director of Common Voice Africa, urged county commissioners, local administrators, chiefs and law enforcement agencies in the state to work as a team to improve the security situation during dry season when cattle keepers from all sections graze their cattle in Lol-manyiel toch area.
Sultan Majak Malual, the head of the joint border court in Rumbek, urged state authorities to disarm the civil population and regulate the use of alcohol among a group of armed youth called Gelweng.