By Martin Garang Aher (Borglobe)

It is extremely appalling to continually see the killing going on unabated in Duk Padiet for two consecutive weeks. The media puts death toll at 89. All these deaths are due to orchestrated violence by human action. It seems there is no immediate government gangbuster amelioration in sight for the people of Dukein who have been rendered defenceless through the disarmament process that took place in the area prior to independence. One thought such a bold move by the government to dispossess ever-feuding communities of guns would be accompanied by a certain ‘decree’ or measures aimed at thwarting attacks on the people deliberately made defenceless by the state. Since disarmament was done for the sake of national security and peace, it would have been wise if security apparatus were installed prior to taking the guns away from the people.  Behold government ‘decrees’ in South Sudan apply only to some things and not others.

The results are now the shocking images and figures of dead women; young children, elderly and even able bodied men who could only run around unable to ward off the catastrophe befalling their people. Where is the peace and security upon which disarmament was based upon? The roaming-and-raiding gangs of Murle are persistently and callously butchering civilians in the entire Duk counties. Where are the swarms of police of Jonglee and RSS, which we always see proudly, displayed on the SSTV? When disarmament started in the area in 2006, nearly all the communities in Jonglee: Dinka, Murle and Nuer nagged the government over the possibility of the latter to renege on the promises of protection made to the people. They were aware that they would be left alone once they have handed in their weapons. Judging from what had happened today, they were right! The security the government promised at the time has now turned into a created disaster. 

Across the country, civilians condemned disarmament and the way it was approached. The people of Cueibet complained about the repercussions but were ignored. Nearly 3700 guns were collected in Lakes state, under governorship of Daniel Awet Akot. It did not take long before we witnessed attacks by the rival communities whose disarmament process treated with caution. It did not worked well too with the people of Rumbek and Yirol.  In Warrap, hundreds of people were massacred after the disarmament, and unto this day, killing keeps recurring. Government responses in all these cases had never made anyone contented that state security was guaranteed for them. But what happened in Dukein was astonishingly baffling.

The government disarmed Duk first, leaving the entire community defenceless. And then later, Ayod, Twic East, Bor Nyirol and Uror were subsequently disarmed. Pibor, Pochalla, Akobo, Fangak and Pigi were left behind with these latter areas ‘presumed’ ‘less aggressive’ based on tribal attacks.  This was total madness! It neither rang a bell even to Mayen Ngor, the commissioner at the time, nor has it nudged Kuol Manyang to have a second thought over it.  Law abiding status had been taken as aggressiveness in the case of Duk.   And if this heeding by the people of Dukein were awarded with appropriate measures of protection to the civilians, it would have sounded an authentic imperfection on the side of the government. But no protection was provided!  In 2010, a peace conference was organised by Upper Nile Youth Mobilisation for peace at Liberty Hotel.  It was funded by PACT Sudan and UNMIS. In the discussions of that conference, youth leaders warned of rearmament if the government failed to provide security once they were disarmed. Of course the youth, who came from various counties including Pibor, were sceptical.

Today areas that were deemed less aggressive in attacking others are the very ones massacring their neighbours, abducting children and taking livestock. The government, which thinks that South Sudan is an International Province of the West, sits and watch, sometimes shouting over the shoulder to the UN and the International Community, or in the crudest thinking of all, demands more disarmament. One couldn’t stand the Minister of Interior coming to Bor and began trumpeting about disarmament again to Kuol Manyang while the government’s past mistake still has its nasty results underway in Duk Padiet. 

There is no much fortitude left for the people of Duk. The government must bring protection to the people of Duk Padiet. Though it forgot to set forth this as the precondition for disarming the county during the 2006 disarmament process, it will still be welcome. The same courage the government has in shutting down the oil pipeline is the same courage needed to provide protection to civilians. People first! The government must be a people’s government, not oil government.  For any future disarmament to be successful, it must begin in the desert, not at home. And government must make clear to the people the measures it has taken to protect them before shifting the balance of protection. Security is exchanged with security and for the government to fear not to take head-on the marauding youth on a killing spree, what it fears for will surely come to pass.

Martin Garang Aher is a South Sudanese living in Western Australia.  He can be reached at garangaher@hotmail.com

(NewDesignWorld Press Center) - The United States continues to be deeply disturbed by the recent interethnic clashes in Jonglei State in the Republic of South Sudan that are causing tremendous human suffering, displacement, and death. The long-running cycle of violence between certain tribes, particularly the Murle and Lou Nuer, has escalated to an alarming series of revenge attacks in recent weeks, and we urge all sides to refrain from further provocative or retaliatory acts.

We welcome the South Sudanese government’s launch of an investigation into these attacks and its deployment of additional military and police forces to the region, and we support efforts by the UN and non-governmental organizations to provide urgently-needed humanitarian assistance to those who fled the fighting. We believe that it is important for the South Sudanese government to respond not only with immediate measures to stem the escalating cycle of attacks between these tribes, but also to address the root causes of violence between them. In particular, we urge the South Sudanese government to address the lack of security in these communities, and we urge the leaders of these communities to engage each other in a peaceful manner to come to a long-term resolution to the violence. We also note the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) with respect to conflict prevention and civilian protection, and call upon the South Sudanese government and the UN to continue working closely together on this vitally important mission. We further call upon the UN to provide any additional support that is needed by UNMISS to carry out its responsibilities in South Sudan.

JUBA (AFP) - Gunmen killed at least 51 people in the latest ethnic clashes in South Sudan's troubled Jonglei state, the region's governor said Tuesday.

"The whole night (Monday) they burned the town... 51 are confirmed dead and now we have 22 (injured) evacuated to Juba," said Jonglei governor Kuol Manyang.

Armed men stormed the village of Duk Padiet in northern Jonglei late Monday, with most of those killed "women, children and the elderly," Manyang told AFP.

"We are expecting more to be injured because they ran to the villages last night," he said, blaming gunmen from the Murle ethnic group for the attack.

Remote and impoverished Jonglei has seen a dramatic escalation of bloody tit-for-tat attacks between rival ethnic groups over cattle raids and abduction of people.

Newly-independent South Sudan has declared Jonglei a national "disaster area" while the United Nations has launched a "massive emergency" operation to help over 60,000 people affected by the violence.

Last month an 8,000-strong tribal militia of Lou Nuer youths marched on Pibor, to exact revenge on the Murle people there for alleged attacks, abductions and cattle raiding.

Now officials claim the latest violence is the Murle's response.

One attacker was killed, a suspected Murle man wearing military fatigues, Manyang said.

The village "was attacked by people positively identified as the Murle armed youth," said Philip Thon Leek Deng, the local MP.

Deng said that large herds of cattle had been stolen in a series of raids in the area last week, but the attack Monday targeted people.

"They did not take cattle... they are only coming for annihilation," he said.

The people of Duk Padiet are from the Dinka ethnic group, who are also traditional rivals of the Murle.

Minister of Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin said around 3,000 extra security forces had been deployed in Jonglei, mostly to Murle areas, but now attacks were happening in Nuer and Dinka areas.

"The forces we have taken in cannot cover every area," he said.

Jonglei, an isolated and swampy state about the size of Austria and Switzerland combined has limited mud roads often impassable for months during heavy rains.

Guns are common in the region devastated by two decades of war with northern Sudanese forces, a conflict that paved the way for the South's independence last July.

The UN says that last year, violence between the two tribes left around 1,100 people dead and tens of thousands displaced in a series of cattle raids involving abductions of women and children.

Press Release at (Borglobe)

 Hon. Gai L Ngundeng, Grandson of Prophet Ngundeng and Chairman of Prophet Ngundeng’s Historical Society Association

Decree No: 001/1/12

January, 15, 2012 - Based on the authority bestowed upon me by the family of Prophet Ngundeng, and based upon the moral authority of Prophet Ngundeng upon Nuer tribe, I, Hon. Gai L Ngundeng, the grandson of Prophet Ngundeng and Chairman of Ngundeng’s Historical Society Association, do hereby issue a religious decree ordering all Nuer in the world to fight Murle tribe. This decree is issued as a result of Murle’s attack on Wec Deang (God City) on January, 14, 2012 in which 15 women and children were killed and 4,000 heads of cattle stolen.
 
Prophet Ngundeng’s city has never been attacked by any force since the beginning of 20th C. It was 1902 when British forces attempted to capture Wech Deang but Prophet Ngundeng acted as an emergency response to alien forces in order to protect Nuer values and killed all the British forces with his divine Rod. His divine Rod was returned to South Sudan in 2009 by Prof. Douglas Johnson from United Kingdom.
 
Since January, 6, 2012, 900 Murle members of the SPLA army in Nasir, Maiwut, Ulang, Malakal and Bor towns left their barracks and joined Murle Youth to attack Nuer villages. They first attacked Dengjok Payam and killed over 30 civilians and took over 20,000 heads of cattle. In few days, they attacked Uror County and massacred over 60 civilians and took over 6,000 heads of cattle. On January, 14, 2012, the Murle fighters attacked Prophet Ngundeng’s Bieh (Pyramid) and killed innocent civilians.
 
The people of South Sudan and international community should be made aware that no human being or force ever attacked Wech Deang even during the war. When the SPLM/A was fighting successive governments in Khartoum, no force had ever attempted to attack Ngundeng’s pyramid. Neither the forces of Sudan governments nor the SPLA ever attacked the holy place.
 
When Riek Machar and John Garang were fighting in 1990s, neither faction had ever attempted to go near Wech Deang. The holy city has been a place of refuge for people running away from any danger. When Riek Machar’s forces chased Garang’s forces in 1996, the forces of the latter took refuge at Wech Deang. The leader of Ngundeng’s Bieh ordered Riek Machar’s forces not to attack Garang’s forces who took refuge in holy city. Dr. Machar’s forces complied and returned without attacking the holy place. The elder of Bieh (pyramid) served Garang’s forces with food for one week until they left safely for Bor where they joined the forces of SPLM/A-Torit faction.
 
What the Murle did is similar to the attempt of colonial forces in 1902 who tried to attack the holy city. Therefore, Murle’s attack on January, 14, 2012 is an attack on Nuer religious values and dignity. All Nuer officials, politicians, students, soldiers, youth, doctors, lawyers and white army have to fight Murle youth and defectors to bring them to justice for attacking holy city of Wech Deang. All the Nuer in USA, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Australia must come back to South Sudan to join the war against Murle who defiled Nuerland by attacking holy city.
 
 
For question:
Hon. Gai L Ngundeng
Grandson of Prophet Ngundeng
Chairman of Ngundeng’s Historical Society Association
Email: gngundeng@yahoo.ca Tel. +211 (or 249)956-155-671
Juba, South Sudan

JUBA — More than 3,000 people were killed in South Sudan in brutal massacres last week in bloody ethnic violence that forced thousands to flee, the top local official in the affected area said Friday.

“There have been mass killings, a massacre,” said Joshua Konyi, commissioner for Pibor county in Jonglei state.

“We have been out counting the bodies, and we calculate so far that 2,182 women and children were killed and 959 men died.”

United Nations and South Sudanese army officials have yet to confirm the death tolls and the claims from the remote region could not be independently verified.

If confirmed, the killings would be the worst outbreak of ethnic violence ever seen in the fledgling nation, which split from Sudan in July.

A column of some 6,000 rampaging armed youths from the Lou Nuer tribe last week marched on the remote town of Pibor, home to the rival Murle people, whom they blame for cattle raiding and have vowed to exterminate.

The Lou Nuer gunmen attacked Pibor and only withdrew after government troops opened fire.
Over a thousand children are missing, feared abducted, while tens of thousands of cows were stolen, Konyi added, who comes from the Murle ethnic group.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Lise Grande, said earlier this week that she feared “tens, perhaps hundreds” could have died.

“Yes, there have been casualties, but we don’t have the details, and can’t at present confirm what the commissioner reports,” said Jonglei state information minister Isaac Ajiba.

“We are awaiting reports from our (military) forces on the ground,” said South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer. “For the assessment to be credible they must have gone into the villages to count all the bodies.”

Ethnic violence, cattle raids and reprisal attacks in the vast eastern state left over 1,100 people dead and forced some 63,000 from their homes last year, according to U.N. reports based on local authorities and assessment teams.

© 2012 AFP

Mark Tran,

guardian.co.uk

Government declares disaster zone and calls for assistance as thousands flee from their homes to escape violence between ethnic groups in Jonglei state

South Sudan has declared Jonglei state a disaster zone and has appealed for international aid for thousands of people who have fled into the bush to escape fighting between rival ethnic groups.

South Sudan's council of ministers declared the disaster at a special meeting on Wednesday, South Sudan's media reported, and asked international relief agencies to rush aid to the area.

The latest round of fighting broke out in late December when 6,000 armed men from the Lou Nuer ethnic group attacked Pibor county, the home of the Murle community, in the latest clash between the two groups. 

UN officials estimate more than 20,000 people fled as the Lou Nuer moved on the remote town of Pibor in apparent retaliation for cattle raids by the Murle. Gunmen burned thatched huts and looted two medical facilities run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) over the past week during fighting that has left more than 1,000 dead in recent months. The attacks threaten to destabilise the world's newest country.

Sarathy Rajendran, head of Médecins Sans Frontières in South Sudan, who was in Pibor on Thursday morning, said people were slowly coming back and MSF planned to start operating in the town by the end of the week.

"I was there this morning, which is an hour away by plane from Juba [the capital]. Parts of the town have been burnt, our facilities were completely looted, but people are coming back and are not afraid any more. It is stable now. There are enormous needs, some people need every single item. Our first priority will be medical care, but we are planning to provide non-food items as well so people can start rebuilding."

As the South Sudanese government appealed for emergency aid, the information minister, Benjamin Barnaba, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that he could guarantee the security of any aid workers who went to the area. "This area is under the complete control of the government," he told the BBC.

Minority Rights Group International, which focuses on indigenous peoples, called on the South Sudan government to take immediate steps to protect civilians from all ethnic groups. MRG said in the long-term the government must address the root causes of violence among minority communities through political representation, disarmament and equitable distribution of natural resources.

"Competition between ethnic groups over scarce resources has escalated in South Sudan. At the same time there is a security vacuum, leading to the formation of militia groups and a breakdown of traditional structures of authority," said Chris Chapman, MRG's head of conflict prevention. "This will continue to threaten the stability of the new nation, unless the government acts quickly to ensure security, inclusive representation for all communities, and equitable access to land and natural resources."

The clashes, which on the face of it appear to be cattle raids, have deeper causes to do with poverty, competition for scarce resources, the plethora of small arms left over from a decades-long war, and marginalisation of ethnic minorities, said MRG. Some minority groups felt that their interests are not being represented within the South Sudanese political system, and that resources have been diverted to more populous ethnic groups.

The fighting in the past week is the latest outbreak of violence that has lasted several months. In one incident last year, 600 Lou Nuer were killed by attackers from the Murle people, who also took away 38,000 cattle.

The UN says communal violence in Jonglei state, an isolated and swampy state with limited mud roads that are often impassable for months during heavy rains, left more than 1,100 people dead during 2011 and displaced more than 60,000 others. The clashes represent the latest challenge to the fledgling country, which became independent in July. It also faces cross-border tensions with its northern neighbour, Sudan.

BBC

The United Nations is sending troop reinforcements to the South Sudanese town of Pibor to prevent an attack by members of the Lou Nuer ethnic group.

Tens of thousands of people from the rival Murle group fled the town on Friday morning, fearing violence.

Inter-ethnic clashes in Jonglei state, initially triggered by cattle raids, have cost the lives of around 1,000 people in recent months.

The UN already has a battalion of troops in Pibor.

Most victims of the clashes have been women and children. Both communities have abducted children during the violence.

Correspondents say these attacks are one of the biggest challenges to the stability of South Sudan, the world's newest country, which only became an independent nation in July.

It is one of the world's poorest regions, inhabited by around 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs.

About 6,000 armed men from the Lou Nuer community are marching through Jonglei state burning homes and seizing cattle along the way, says BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross.

Continue reading the main story

• Audio slideshow: Cattle country

Earlier this week the entire town of Lukangol was burnt to the ground by the Lou Nuer fighters. Around 20,000 civilians managed to flee the town before the attack, but dozens were killed on both sides.

The United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator in South Sudan, Lise Grande, told the BBC that the UN was reinforcing its troops in Pibor to assist the South Sudanese army in defending civilians.

"We are very concerned by the scale of this," she said.

"The UN is facing enormous logistical challenges - we still have no military aircraft, only civilian helicopters," she added.

South Sudan Vice-President Riek Machar has been shuttling between the rival communities in a push for peace. On Thursday night it seemed he had persuaded the Lou Nuer not to attack Pibor - but they then left in their thousands overnight heading towards that town.

Cattle plays a central role in the life of many South Sudanese communities - in the absence of banks, they are used to store wealth and to pay bride prices.

The violence between the two communities has been going on for years, but with modern weapons its scale is increasing.

Our correspondent says the clashes may have begun as cattle raids, but they have spiralled out of control into retaliatory attacks.