The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNIMSS), in collaboration with the Aweil Town Joint Border Peace Committee, in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State on Friday launched a cattle theft prevention awareness campaign at the Aweil cattle auction market.
Cattle theft has been on the rise in the area since last year and the campaign by local peace actors and UNMISS aims at mitigating the vice and restoring peaceful coexistence among local communities.
In August, joint border peace committees for Aweil Town and Aweil South County were formed and tasked to conduct peace and conflict mitigation awareness so that the communities are relieved from conflict triggers.
The team leader for the Civil Affairs Division at the UN mission’s office in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, Maria Inecita Montero, said the event was purposely meant to raise awareness.
“The purpose of this campaign of raising awareness of those stakeholders is to mitigate conflict arising from cattle theft so this is a very laudable initiative by the Aweil Town Joint Border Peace Committee. This is an indication that they fully understand their roles and appreciate their roles as peace board members,” she said. “So they have initiated this raising awareness to mitigate conflicts and ensure that peace is kept in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.”
A local resident, Atak Kuan, said the UNMISS move was timely because cattle theft was on the rise in the area.
“UNMISS has come to make peace here because there are cattle thieves. There are robbers who paint cows with different colors so that the owners will not recognize them,” he said. “The fur of goats and sheep are also cut to confuse the owners and we also learned that police have a role to apprehend the robbers and that is why UNMISS has come here to sensitize people to abandon theft.”
Another Aweil resident, Bol Chan Awac, said cattle theft spoils the peace because people end up fighting.
“Cattle robbery destroys the peace because if a person steals someone’s livestock, they will fight and that spoils peace. If there is no robbery, it means there is peace,” Chan said. “I thank UNMISS staff because the meeting we conducted was very good.”