Ex-Taban aide demands ‘unconditional release’ of officials detained over Aneet incident

 JUBA – A former senior aide to South Sudan’s ex-first vice president Taban Deng Gai on Monday called for the unconditional release of officials detained over the Aneet incident.

The 16 people including government officials, military leaders, and civilians who have been in custody since April have been accused of inciting violence that left at least 15 people dead in Abyei.

In a brief Facebook post, Agel Machar claimed that the long detention of state officials has intensified the increasingly bloody conflict.

“Their long arbitrary detention, evidently, has neither led to the resolution of the conflict or dispute nor has it led to a reduction in the intensity of the bloody conflict as we hoped and expected,” he wrote on Monday.

Machar said that the leadership vacuum has created chaos in both Twic and Abyei areas.

“In fact, the opposite was witnessed, due to the obvious leadership vacuum that was created on both sides of the borders on the ground in the aftermath of their abrupt unexplained detentions and extraction from their respective duty stations,” said Machar.

Machar also appeal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit to review the mandate of the Twic-Abyei inter-communal Investigation Committee headed by Vice President for Service Cluster Hussein Abdelbagi Akol.

He added that the review of the Ad-hoc committee will help in containing what he called unfortunate fratricide between Twic and Abyei.

“We would like at this point in time to appeal to President Mayardit with utmost humility and respect, to consider, in a timely manner and with a sense of urgency, the review of the mandate and performance of that Twic-Abyei inter-communal Investigation Committee,” he said.

“This will help in improving its capacity and effectiveness, not only in effectively containing the unfortunate fratricide between Twic and Abyei in the short term but ultimately end the dispute or conflict once and for all.”

“By meticulously digging out the roots of the truth about the whereabouts of the exact borders between the sisterly communities of Twic and Abyei, hence the fate of the disputed areas,” he added.

In February, fighting erupted at Aneet market in Abyei Administrative Area over land disputed by the two communities.

More than 50,000 people mostly women and children were displaced as a result of the violence.

President Salva Kiir in the aftermath of the violence formed an ad-hoc committee to investigate the killings in the Aneet market.

On May 5th, leaders from the two communities reached an agreement to cease hostilities but later on fighting erupted again with both sides trading blame.