R-TGONU in Juba unable to stem continuing ethnic wars and violence in the country

June 13, 2020 Newsbeat, Press Releases

For Immediate release

By Dr. Hakim Dario | Chair, PDM,

South Sudan Presidency comprising of president Salva Kiir, First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and other four vice president during a session at the Republican Palace, J1(Photo credit: presidential press unit)

June 13, 2020(SSNN) — The People’s Democratic Movement is horrified that after warning of renewed violence in Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) by advancing SPLM-IO Lou Nuer and Dinka of Jonglei militia forces over a week ago, on 2^nd June 2020[1], neither the R-TGONU nor SPLM-IO has responded to denounce the looming violence and have not taken obligatory preventative measures to halt it.

While condemning ethnic violence that is destroying the country’s social fabric, PDM strongly denounces the R-TGONU and SPLM-IO leadership for not condemning and intervening to stem the violence and blood letting against innocent civilians in the GPAA on their watch. The SPLA-IO forces are signatories to the (CoHA[2]) under the terms of the R-ARCSS, yet the CTSAMVM[3] has reported that SPLM-IO forces left their cantonment and unification of forces training cites with all their guns. PDM urges the CTSAMVM to investigate the role of SPLM/A-IO forces in the attacks carried out against the GPAA.

The country is now stalked by and littered with violent ethnic conflicts in Upper Nile, Bahr al Ghazal, and in Equatoria. The ethnic militia forces are heavily armed with automatic weapons the sources of which are presumed to be army and security generals supplying and arming their communities with lethal weapons from the Government stockpile.

PDM regrettably reiterates the current lack of R-TGONU relevance; neither in Juba nor at the State level, as the ethnic armies of SPLM-IO Lou Nuer and Dinka of Jonglei militias take the rule of law into their own hands by raising combined armies to march on other ethnic communities with impunity. South Sudan is edging towards anarchy, ethnic wars and breakdown, when the government is the single-source provider of armaments to the warring communities to protect the ruling hegemonic elites’ power and patronage system that is keeping them in power.

To date, the state and administrative area governments have not been formed in the country. The ethnic wars, form part of the un-written bargains and calculations by proxy wars to influence political decisions for control over resources and power sharing in Juba by other means.

PDM reiterates urgent intervention of monitoring and verification team CTSAMVM[4] and UNMISS on the ground to investigate ethnic wars linkage to the R-TGONGU patronage networks in Juba and their breach of the peace under the R-ARCSS.

Meanwhile the IGAD countries, AU and the UNSEC are called upon to unreservedly condemn the violence and take measures to swiftly halt the blood letting carnage in GPAA.

There social fabric and relations in South Sudan between the neighboring Murle, Dinka Bor and Lou Nuer communities are now damaged beyond repair in the short term, and would take the whole country to come together to address the crisis of governance in a people-driven constitution making process. The inept R-TGONU[5] in Juba is proven unable and impotent to effectively prevent ethnic wars in the country once and for all. The alternative People’s Government of South Sudan NADAFA is now long overdue to lead the way forward, addressing the root causes of conflict and power sharing equitably between the peoples of Equatoria, Upper Nile and Bahr al Ghazal, and which does not concentrate all political power in the hands of corrupt SPLM elites in Government and in IO by the terms of the flawed R-ARCSS 2018.

PDM urges the AU, UNSC, Troika, EU and IGAD, the region and internal communities to:

Task a UN Panel of Experts to conduct investigations into the wide spread violence and atrocities against civilians from the raging wars in Upper Nile, Equatoria, and Bahr al Ghazal regions and report on the underlying root causes and people’s grievances.
Support efforts on People-to-People Conventions in Upper Nile for peaceful co-existence between the Murle, Lou Nuer and Dinka Bor communities in a new constitutional order under a Federal system of Governance which respects territorial integrity and regional development
Provide relief assistance to IDPs in GPAA, Dinka Bor and Lou Nuer areas
Support peaceful measures to relocate Dinka pastoralists from Equatoria occupied lands back to their homes of origin in Bor, in order to avoid stoking further and needless violent conflict with the local population in Equatoria

Dr. Hakim Dario is the chairperson of the People Democratic Movement. He can be reached for more information through his email at press@pdm-rss.org,

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