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Tali peace dialogue seeks to concretize ways of ending inter-state cattle migration feud

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South Sudan
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UNMISS
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JAMES SOKIRI

The Muru of Amadi, a predominantly farming community, drove for hours to Tali town, to meet their Mundari counterparts, who are largely cattle keepers. They were joined by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) a day later, amid cheers and ululations as they embraced one another.

The venue in Terekeka, where an important inter-communal dialogue took place, became a hub where former foes, relatives and friends met to greet and chat after years of separation by the South Sudan conflict.

Organized by the Civil Affairs Division of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the dialogue sought to ease tensions and end inter-state cattle migration conflict.

The over 100 participants perused previous resolutions drawn from six different grassroots engagement conferences conducted in Mvolo, Jambo, Yirol, Cubet, Rumbek and Tali over the years in order to extract, concretize and consolidate implementable resolutions out of them.

At the conclusion of the three-day dialogue, the participants approved and passed about 14 different resolutions which would now help govern the conduct of cattle migration during the dry season.

Among other things, the resolutions called on authorities of Amadi and Terekeka to jointly facilitate safe and unimpeded return of cattle keepers from Amadi to their places of origin.

They also sort to work with partners to sink water catchment reservoirs in Terekeka, and establish a joint border police force to monitor cattle movements and ensure that both pastoralists and farmers do not resort to violence in an event of disagreements emerging over grazing areas.

“We have been one people with the Muru since time immemorial,” says Adam Pudo Diyo, the Terekeka Peace and Reconciliation Adviser. “We used to share education and healthcare facilities, water points and grazing areas without problems. We have also intermarried, and now we have in-laws on both sides.”

Mr. Diyo said that the Mundari had borrowed strange cultures that are putting them at odds with their once friendly neighbours. “The longing for more cattle, coupled with the growing numbers of the cattle, is largely to blame for the souring relations,” he said.

He added that weather and climate change have also caused many of the streams of Terekeka to dry up during the dry season making the Mundari cattle keepers to migrate in a bid to find palatable, greener pastures and drinking water for their growing number of animals.

“The major problem is that cattle keepers and crop farmers do not intersect because cattle feed on crops on which the farmers survive,” said James Abdullahi Arona, Amadi Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement Agencies.

Mr. Arona said that the presence of cattle in his area was slowly migrating communal fights and cattle rustling cultures from neighbouring areas such as Lakes and Terekeka into Amadi, a practice that his community would not condone.

“We want the migration season to be smooth, unhindered and conflict-free. We are doing preventive maintenance by trying to mitigate the cattle migration challenge before it spirals out of control,” says Victor Fasama, Team Leader of the Civil Affairs Division of UNMISS in the Field Office of Juba.

“We have come here to make peace. I am so delighted because we have put down rules and regulations. The issue of cattle, which is our only dividing factor, is over,” says Biolece Karaba, a 35-year-old participant and resident of Amadi’s Jambo area.

“All roads should remain open as of today. If we can sit down like this, discuss and resolve our issues peacefully, it can foster good understanding between us and result in peaceful co-existence.”

“I am going to inform my people that peace has finally come between Amadi and Terekeka so that they can also wholly embrace it,” said Wisley Welebe Mokobe, commissioner of the SPLA-IO group in the area, which is affiliated to Riek Machar. “We have opened all the roads between government and IO territories to ease the movement of people and their property into and out of our areas of control.”