A one-day retreat held in Yuai town of Jonglei State’s Uror County between representatives from Lou Nuer and their Murle neighbors from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) on Thursday concluded with a recommitment to peaceful coexistence.
Uror County commissioner James Gatkhor Gatluak told Radio Tamazuj that he invited his Likuangole County counterpart from GPAA and his accompanying delegation of chiefs, youth leaders, and a peace commissioner to discuss means to deter any reoccurrence of violence between the two neighbors ahead of the dry season.
“In the 2021 Pieri Peace Conference, a need for exchange visits was one of the recommendations and it is on this basis that we invite officials from Pibor to visit us,” he stated. “During the dry season, inter-communal violence heightens and so we had agreed with our counterparts to stop any youth mobilization campaigns against each other and that cattle rustling activities should be stopped.”
On his part, James Nyicho Pirya, a GPAA peace commissioner, said the communities of the restive Greater Jonglei have suffered for a long time and the leaders coming together creates hope.
“We are coming for peace and this peace we are talking about should be implemented during the dry season because we have challenges of peace,” he said. “As a government, we are planning to collect abductees and reunite them with their families this dry season. We are one community and our communities have suffered for long so we need to be together.”