By Hou Akot Hou
The commissioner of Tonj South County in South Sudan’s Warrap State has, on Tuesday, convened a security meeting in an extraordinary sitting with the payam directors in a bid to plan ways to contain the rising insecurity in the county.
On the official page of the commissioner, Mr. Gordon Makuer Tiau, seen by this outlet, the commissioner conducted a meeting to streamline the ways of ameliorating the rising insecurity in the county following reports of armed civilians taking arms and marauding people in the community.
The meeting brought together all town administrators with the payam administrators of Tonj South County, as the closest arms of the government; payam administrators have been complaining about rising insecurity in the county, and therefore they helped discuss ways of finding ways of bringing law and order to their respective areas.
Commissioner Gordon Maker Tiau emphasised in a meeting the need to bring back the raided cattle to the care of the administrators’ leadership and up to the county and also help strengthen coordination of their duties in all payams.
The meeting focused on the key agenda, mainly on insecurity, and deliberated on ways to deploy the forces to volatile payams in the forthcoming deployment efforts that the state aims to undertake.
They also discussed the reshuffling of administrators, administrative challenges, and management of resources.
One of the administrators contacted on the phone Wednesday morning echoed the high rise of insecurity as people take it upon themselves to loot at will.
“The rule of law has lost its meaning here. The more you’re armed, the more you can take whatever comes your way,” said Luka Dut, an administrator in Tonj South County.
The Payam administrators or directors urge the commissioner to never backtrack on the way of addressing the insecurity in the state, as cases of bandits taking cows at gunpoint and others looting are at best.
The directors also appealed for the formation of community police in each payam to help deter occurrences of cattle theft and raiding, which has become a common phenomenon in Greater Warrap and its neighbouring states.
In a different scenario, Tonj North Commissioner Agany Lok Agany on Tuesday visited Alabek payam, in which huge damage has been caused by the ransacking of the hospital by the attackers.
The commissioner, together with the Division 11 commander Maj. Gen. Juma Rian Deng, arrived in Alabek payam to assess the security and humanitarian situation as a result of the recent inter-clan conflict.
Commissioner Agany urged the residents to return to their ancestral homes as the local security forces are being deployed to deter the armed men, saying that as the conflict erupted between the communities of Lou Mawien and Ariik, those found engaging in the communal conflict will face full expulsion from the area.
“I am warning people with a crystal-clear message that anyone who would be found having a hand in this destruction of the properties, including the hospital, and is not from here will pay for it, including a total expulsion from this area,” he noted.
A huge destruction caused by the attacks includes the destruction of Alabek Primary Health Care Center leaving the facility vulnerable to losses as essential drugs were taken away.
Despite the efforts being carried out to contain the insecurity through the declaration of a state of emergency and disarmament exercise, little has been achieved, as banditry and cattle raiding have been reportedly happening almost every day in Greater Warrap.
As the Marial-Wau peace initiative is ongoing in the area, Warrap State remains a flashpoint, as cattle raid incidents have been happening despite attempts and peace messages being rendered day in and day out.