Yakani condemns ‘inhuman killing’ of 5 civilians in Central Equatoria

JUBA – South Sudan prominent activist Edmund Yakani has issued a statement condemning the killing of five innocent civilians in Central Equatoria state by cattle herders suspected to have come from neighboring Jonglei state, urging Jonglei and Central Equatoria states authorities to take action on the perpetrators.

This evening, the ministry of information of Central Equatoria State said five civilians were killed and six others were badly wounded when armed men suspected to have come from Jonglei State attacked a village in Lokiliri Payam of Juba County.

The victims were villagers who were mostly farmers and the government of Central Equatoria State has issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the cattle herders to return to their areas of origin or face the full force of law.

In a statement, Yakani who is the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) condemned the killing and describe the killing as unacceptable and urged Jonglei authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“CEPO strongly condemns the unlawful act of some cattle herders from Dinka Bor of Jonglei state for inhumanly killing innocent civilians in Ngerjebe village of Lokiliri Payam of Juba County. This is totally unacceptable act and the both states namely Central Equatoria and Jonglei states governments should act on this incident immediately before it turns into deadly inter-communal violence,” Yakani said.

“The issue of Herders immigrating from Jonglei state into Central Equatoria state well-armed and not in organized manner is repeatedly becoming a source of human rights violations and a factor that can potentially trigger deadly violence among the communities,” he stressed.

The prominent activist called on the government of Central Equatoria State to undertake “serious and concrete actions in handling the sub-national violence or deadly communal violence.”

He pointed out that CEPO has been “raising early conflict alerts, but the concern government authorities at states and national level are have not taken seriously our last three months alerts for possible occurrence of deadly communal violence among the migrating pastoralists from Jonglei to lands of the farmers in central Equatoria and eastern Equatoria states.”