The local authorities in Jonglei State’s Uror County on Tuesday dismissed as baseless a social media claim that their youth are mobilizing to attack the neighboring Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA).
Acting Uror County Commissioner Lual Puot told Radio Tamazuj that the report of alleged mobilization was brought to their attention Monday, prompting an immediate investigation that found the claims baseless.
He blamed the widely circulated allegations on individuals he termed peace spoilers.
“Our youth in all payams are intact. No one is mobilizing to attack Pibor. It was yesterday that we learned from our peace partners that these rumors exist. We are for peace and will not allow any mobilization to take place,” he said. “Instead, in the last two weeks, we received at least four attacks from Murle, with the last one having occurred on 29 November. Our youth have since been pursuing them and just returned yesterday without recovering the stolen cattle.”
Meanwhile, Jacob Werchum Jouk, the GPAA information minister, acknowledged awareness about the reports and that they would engage their Jonglei State counterparts.
“We are aware of this reported mobilization but we are still treating it as rumors because we got them in the media,” he stated. “We are still gathering details before we contact the Government of Jonglei State. As for our side, we are calm.”
For his part, Bol Deng Bol, the executive director of the civil society organization, INTREPID South Sudan (ISS), challenged the government to treat the report as a wake-up call.
“These rumors that there is an ongoing mobilization in the northern and even central parts of Jonglei State have been there for quite some time. However, such rumors are very difficult to prove,” he said. “So it is worth reminding the government that it is their responsibility to find out if these rumors are true or not and if found true then they should have it de-escalated.”