Melut and Maban counties have reached a temporary solution to the boundary dispute that arose between them earlier this month over alleged occupation of part of the Maban territory by security forces from Melut.
Since the start of the crisis in Upper Nile in mid December, county governments in both Maban and Melut declared loyalty to nation’s president, in spite of defections in contested areas to the south. Tensions nonetheless arose between the two counties.
Maban and Melut county executives traded accusations openly earlier this month. Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on 10 February, Maban County Commissioner James Basha said about 300 armed civilians mobilized by the Melut commissioner had trespassed the county’s administrative boundaries.
David Ongo Dimi, a member of South Sudan’s national parliament representing the Maban constituency, has helped to broker a new arrangement to prevent further escalation of the dispute. The lawmaker says that the solution emerged after informal contacts between representatives of the two areas at the national level, as well as meetings with authorities locally.
“There’s a temporary solution. We came here and met with the people of the two counties. We talked to the authorities, we said to them, the thing that happened between Maban and Melut here is not something good,” the MP explained in an interview with Radio Tamazuj on Sunday.
He said it was bad for somebody to say, “this is my border” and make a claim to an area. “For example, you go and get a sign post and put it here and say ‘this is my border.’ Who told them they could do something like that?”
MP David Ongo Dimi said the issue of setting county borders was a competency of higher levels of governments, not of the local governments. He also warned of opposition efforts to spread rumors and ignite sedition and distrust within the two counties.
Maban accusations
According to Maban Commissioner James Basha, the trespassing force from Melut had fixed signposts at Kilo Ashara and Bankata areas deep inside Maban County early in February.
Calling the force from Melut a ‘white army,’ he added that they “just started establishing checkpoints for revenues and taxes collection from the locals.”
“I think they have defied the orders by the Upper Nile State Governor who urged both of us to suspend the claims until the security situation improves in the country,” he added in an interview 10 February.
Melut commissioner denies
For his part, Melut County Commissioner Akech Teng dismissed the accusation, saying that the Melut natives were deployed to protect oil fields in the area.
“We are here as a security force protecting the oil field, so not youth. The soldiers were organized by our government and sent them to that place where the oil is exploring, Gomori and Adar,” he told Eye Radio in Juba on 9 February.
The Melut commissioner further asserted that a question of internal boundaries was never at stake, but rather larger security issues. The force deployed there was only for protection and had nothing to do with territorial claims.