At least five people have been killed in the ongoing violence in Pibor Administrative Area, officials have said. 12 others have reportedly been wounded in the attack said to be taking place in Gumuruk area. Peter Lebelek, former Secretary-General of the defunct Buma state, says armed youth believed to be from the neighboring communities continued to launch attacks on the area over the past four days. Lebelek accuses the SPLA-IO and armed youth from Jonglei State of carrying out the attacks. “They are just moving from town to town and today they are heading to Gumuruk. Their aim only is to capture the towns, they are not looking for cattle,” he told Eye Radio. Lebelek appealed to the national government to intervene, saying the joint groups are using “military tactics”. “These people are not going to be pushed back by the civilians. It needs military tactics like theirs to confront them so that they can go back,” he added. In response, Jonglei State Secretary-General Mabior Atem stated that he was not informed of any mobilization by the youth to attack Pibor. “The reality here is there isn’t any mobilization done here in Bor town which I have witnessed,” he stressed. “Bor town experienced a huge demonstration two weeks ago, on the 4th of this month, and that was something witnessed by people of South Sudan and that is the issue that I have been struggling with. Anything that is outside Bor, I don’t know.”
For his part, the SPLA-IO denied the involvement of its forces in the suspected communal clashes. “Let’s be sincere, its civilians fighting civilians. How can we fight our people? This is not logical. This an inter-communal conflict that needs everybody’s attention, not only SPLA-IO or government,” said Col. Lam Paul, SPLA-IO deputy spokesperson. In February this year, there were reports of armed youth from Lou-Nuer having attacked areas in Greater Pibor which left many civilians killed and thousands displaced. Last month, alleged revenge attacks by youth from Pibor resulted in the killing of more than 200 people in Greater Akobo area. Jonglei State and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area have suffered years of food insecurity and were severely hit by flooding in 2019. In May, the UN Human Rights Commissioner called for swift investigations into recent violence that reportedly killed, wounded and displaced people in Jonglei state. The body said that the perpetrators of these inter-communal acts of violence have not been arrested and prosecuted. It underlined the importance of ending the circle of retaliatory violence by holding those responsible to account and promoting peace-building between individual communities. Last week, Troika has expressed concern over “increased levels of violence across South Sudan” which comes as a result of vacuum created by absence of state governments.
