By Jacob Onuha Nelson
Lake states government has declared disarmament in Rumbek County.
In an exclusive interview with this outlet on Tuesday, Koji Korjik, the Acting State Minister of Information and Communication confirmed the ongoing disarmament in the state.
Koji claimed that there are people who do sneak from their respective cattle camps with their weapons and keep it in town roaming which the law doesn’t allow.
“There are those who might sneak from the cattle camp with their weapon and keep it in the town or roaming around with it. So, it’s not allowed. And such guns are to be disarmed or they are to be arrested,” Koji said.
He said the program or the disarmament should be in uniform starting with Rumbek town and respectively to other eight counties in the state.
“We have started in Rumbek and the program is for all the eight counties of the state,” the minister assured the public.
He said the illegal firearms should also include highways because there are people who use to rob on the road and may decide to rob others.
Koji explained that although there are no incidents of robbery or looting on the way by residents but the state government has made a decision to not allow people carrying guns on the way.
“On the highways, it may disturb the peace of the travellers. So, they will not also be allowed to be seen on the highways carrying weapons,” he stressed.
The acting minister, said he can’t disclose the number of weapons collected since the disarmament is still ongoing.
He urged the lake state citizens to cooperate with the forces because the disarmament is a normal routine of the government as security work to ensure peace is guaranteed and protected especially the safety of travellers.
“And we need to cooperate with them. And it will be on for good numbers of days. Good of it. They are cooperating. They are not misbehaving. There are no reported coincidences, which means they are disciplined,” he urged the public.
However, the Disarmament efforts in South Sudan’s Lake State aim is to reduce communal violence, but later faces challenges such as community distrust and the government’s capacity to provide the security. While some disarmament exercises have seen peaceful, voluntary surrender of weapons, whereas others have been forced, that lead to mixed results.