{"id":46121,"date":"2026-07-15T13:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=46121"},"modified":"2026-07-16T13:23:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:23:40","slug":"opinion-tonj-elites-are-part-of-insecurity-in-greater-tonj-j","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/opinion-tonj-elites-are-part-of-insecurity-in-greater-tonj-j\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Tonj elites are part of insecurity in Greater Tonj"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Tong Akok Anei<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It is heartbreaking and deeply concerning how Greater Tonj is butchering itself, but the first challenge is that we failed to point out the real contributing factor that ignites the situation in Tonj amid our cries and yearning for stability.<\/p>\n

This gave someone like me the strength to say that some of us intellectuals, elders, and youth who are in major towns of South Sudan and in the diaspora are crying crocodile tears over the situation back in Tonj.<\/p>\n

The first factor that ignites Tonj insecurity is the Tonj elites, sons and daughters that are in major towns and the diaspora; the second is a weak government that compromises with the law. Tonj’s conflict and insecurity have been prevailing for years, with many leadership styles tried through numerous appointed governors. Therefore, unless we uproot the root cause of this conflict, it will prevail for another decade.<\/p>\n

Why Tonj elites are the ones igniting this conflict is that some of them do sectional communication on communal\/tribal politics with our brothers back home; they do resource mobilisation and send them to aid in sustaining the conflicts.<\/p>\n

Mind you, who is the problem between someone providing strategy, plans, and resources and someone executing the plan and the strategy given? And the simple proof is that some lives were lost here in towns in connection with crises back in Tonj.<\/p>\n

Many youths of warring communities here in town do not come together; many of them have created buffer zones and are not socialising or coming together to condemn the fighting in a unified way, which could have helped de-escalate the conflict back in Tonj.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it’s unreasonable when we only finger-point to the grassroots and leave the people who fuel the situation; if we dare to take a step, we must start from the town.<\/p>\n

If the government fails to control arms and is the only power the communities rely on, then the same primitive youth with uncontrolled arms will be stubborn and wild because the government is too far to quell their stubbornness. One of the main challenges affecting our law enforcement deep in the grassroots is a limited workforce with little equipment and motivation.<\/p>\n

When the government is out of sight at the boma level, deeply in villages, criminal actions will prompt the communities to take the law into their own hands using their traditional approach and minds because the few law enforcement agents out there with limited equipment and logistics become the victims, so they bury their heads in the sand. Hence, most of the pressing issues that need laws to be enforced remain hanging.<\/p>\n

For peace and stability to prevail in greater Tonj, let’s first engage the sons and daughters in town. Let’s first denounce the spirit of crying in public and fueling in the background. Let the same youth in town come together, formulate a strategy in a unified mode, and go home together without even a single government force, and talk to the youth to stop fighting.<\/p>\n

Those fighting are their sons, brothers, and uncles; if we want stability in Tonj as well as other parts of South Sudan experiencing intercommunal violence, let the government control arms, reorganise, and empower the law enforcement agents at the grassroots level.<\/p>\n

The presence or quick arrival of law enforcement agents and the early application of law without any compromise are essential for the restoration of peace and stability in greater Tonj as well as any other parts of South Sudan.<\/p>\n

The author can be reached via email: tongakok47@gmail.com<\/a> & tongakok7170@mail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disclaimer:<\/strong> Any opinion published on our platforms does not represent the view or position of the company.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer: Tong Akok Anei It is heartbreaking and deeply concerning how Greater Tonj is butchering itself, but the first challenge is that we failed to point out the real contributing factor that ignites the situation in Tonj amid our cries and yearning for stability. This gave someone like me the[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":46122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,90,80,87,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists","category-commentary","category-national","category-oped","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Tong-Akok-Anei.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46121"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46126,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46121\/revisions\/46126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}