Opinion: The ongoing intercommunal conflicts are direct result of leadership failure

June 2, 2020 Opinions

By Nhial Gatkuoth Chung

A cattle camp in South Sudan (Photo credit: Polopolo Archive)

June 2, 2020 (SSNN) – South Sudanese had foreseen the failure of the SPLM leadership just months after we hoisted our independence flag, the warning signs that emerged as a result of leadership crisis inside the SPLM party were the emergence of both political and military camps within the SPLM- leaders, all top military commanders and politicians have privately recruited unidentified number of armed men in pretext that they are their bodyguards, those surreptitious moves resulted to illegal proliferation of the small arms to the hands of civilians in different states in the country.

The armed civilians were later on used and are still being used as a private militias by some politicians in the higherechelon of leadership in Juba to settle their political scores and cause instability in the region.

The SPLM leadership failure traits exhibited and clearly appeared in the early days of its ascension to the helm of leadership in South Sudan. Lack of vision or little vision for the future was the main dominance of the what has clearly made South Sudan of what its today, there were no developmental policies put forth in order to build the nascent nation, lack of accountability as rule of guns took over and the so called liberators embarked on inglorious move of looting spree where public resources meant for public good were /are subjected to stealing without accountability.

The above trends had led to the current inter-intra-communal conflict in the entire country

The current Intercommunal conflicts in south Sudan had claimed uncountable lives due to issues that are directly related to the leadership failure, those issues can be amicably addressed if there is a fully functional government in the country who cares about the lives of the citizens.

The SPLM led government failed in all aspects to establish strong economic institutions that can help the country to prosper and help in jobs creation. It’s failed to regulate and develop policies in regard to South Sudan animal resources in the country,innocent lives are being lost on daily basis because cattle rustling. The SPLM led government fails to build schools across the country to offer free education in order to reduce the illiteracy rate and it’s failed to construct road networks and build modern hospitals.

In greater Upper Nile, Murle and Lou Nuer have been fighting for years but the government of the land seems not to care and has never intervened to bring this vicious cycle of violence to an end, instead, some prominent disgruntled politicians that are hiding behind the curtains in Juba are playing dirty and malicious politics to fuel the ongoing intercommunal conflict between Murle, and Lou Nuer.

Dinka Bor in greater Jonglei state had experienced and still experiencing the brutality of communal conflict.

Murle has been known for proxy attacks on the neighboring communities of greater Jonglei state and eastern Equatoria for years, with culture of abducting children and cattle rustling

In greater Bahr Al Ghazal, so many young men lost their lives and still losing more as a direct result of the fight related to cattle rustling and girls, those conflicts are still going on without intervention from the central government. Lake state youth have been killing each other for years and no signs and strategies from the government to end that killing. Warrap and Unity state are serious crisis due till today and nobody cares to say something about it

There are pertinent questions that should always be asked? Who is arming these communities? Who is supplying them with ammunitions?

Of course, we all know that the flow of the arms to the country is the sole responsibility of the government, the question is, how do the guns get into the hands of the civilians? Of course, there are few individuals that are within the system that are supplying the various youth across the country with arms and ammunitions to kill, loot and destabilize the areas and communities.

All those conflicts among the South Sudanese communities caused deleterious consequences due to the leadership failure in Juba, retrospectively, some quarters within the inner circle have been finger pointed to have surreptitiously smuggled firearms to the local youth to continue killing each other for reasons best known to them

South Sudan youth are dying in big numbers because there were no workable policies formulated by the current government to allay the suffering inflicted on them due to cattle rustling and breakdown of rule of law in the country.

For these feuds among the communities to end, the government needs to frame policies that will bring a lasting peace. And to develop a workable and incentivized disarmament policy, formulate strategies that can economically empower youth by creating jobs and opening upvocational training centres that can give them skillsespecially in the areas affected most by this vicious conflict.

The author is a concerned citizen of South Sudan, he can be reached via: nhialnyarok@gmail.com

The opinions and press releases expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors, any veracity lies solely on the authors or the institutions represented by the authors. View more opinion articles and press releases on SSNN. To get your article published, visit our contact page here or send your email to info.ssnewsnow@gmail.com