By Awan Achiek
A South Sudanese political analyst called on the government to establish anti-riot police units to prevent, combat and eradicate communal violence in the country.
Inter-communal fighting has been on the rise across South Sudan. It is often triggered by cattle raids and child abductions, and heightened by ethnic tension and revenge attacks according to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan
More than 700 people have been killed in a series of inter-communal violence in parts of Greater Jonglei region between January and June of last year according to the Office of the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights.
In January 2021, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said his government will no longer deploy security forces to intervene when inter-communal fighting breaks out in Jonglei state and the Pibor Administrative Area, the scene of repeated deadly clashes.
Abraham Kuol Nyuon, professor of political science at the University of Juba, called on the government to establish an anti-civil disobedient or anti-riot unit, a police force that will be able to deal with people involved in communal violence.
“These police needs to be equipped, they should have things like helicopter gunships so they will be able to rush to the scene at specific periods of time to rescue those people who are in trouble,” Kuol said in an interview on Monday.
Kuol appealed to the government to set up cattle-theft tribunal court to bring perpetrators of cattle theft to justice.
“What needs to be done is to enact laws that will be able to deal with cattle-theft, for example, there should be anti-cattle theft or cattle raiding law or act that will be able to outline how people who might raid other people’s cattle will be treated,” he said.
Wani Michael, Executive Director of Okay Africa Foundation called on the government to improve the security situation in the country to be able to mitigate cattle-related conflict.
“Inter-communal violence is on the rise and the government must do something about it. Of course issues originate around providing security to the communities and engaging the communities in communal dialogue,” Michael said.
Michael stressed the need to establish community policing to reduce social disorder in the societies.
“We should also engage in community policing whereby communities involved in security matters are able to work to keep the areas stable,” he said.
“Good number of people died because of inter-communal violence and it is important for the government to prioritise the issue of communal violence by disarming the civil population. The government should be able to provide security for the civilians,” he added.
