Okot Tony, the Agoro head Chief, said the herders should have first sought consultation with them before driving their cattle into the land.

By Theophilous Ochang

The community of Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria State has rejected any talks with Jonglei herders and demanded immediate evacuation.

The statement followed a meeting between Governor Louis Lobong Lojore and the Jonglei cattle herders in which the herders requested a meeting with the host community to compensate for the crops destroyed by their cattle.

Speaking during a meeting between the Acholi community and Governor Lojore on Thursday, Okot Tony, the Agoro head Chief, said they are still mourning their sons and daughters who lost lives during the 2022 crisis in the area.

 “We as the leaders in Magwi County, don’t want to sit down in that meeting,” he said.

He said the herders should have first sought consultation with them before driving their cattle into the land.

“We have lost many people and as the leaders of the community we don’t want to sit down with these people and even any reconciliation.”

Ogoli William, a resident of Ayii Kit in Magwi County said they do not want cattle keepers in the Acholi territory.

 “What’s painful to us as the community leaders, is these people are moving with guns and the government is watching without doing anything,” he said.

He said the community will never engage in any negotiation with the herders nor do they want any compensation from them.

“The issue of compensation that they talked about and we are seeing they are still interested in destroying our farms. They should move out and we don’t want to talk with them,” William lamented.

Akech Marta, the secretary for women in Ayii Boma recalled the previous killings carried out in the area, saying the herders should have not even returned to the Acholi land.

“What they did for us, I as Martha, I don’t want to see them. The reason is that we have people that were killed in this area,” she said.

Also, Francis Okech Oteka, the Deputy Chairperson for the Acholi community in South Sudan rejected any proposal for the meeting and the compensation by the Jonglei cattle herders.

“We don’t want people to be killed in their own place. Things which the cattle have destroyed we don’t want it to be paid.”

He called for a peaceful removal of the cattle herders, “We are saying peacefully they should search for the road and go back even now and nobody will ask them like the way they came.”

Over 10,000 from Bor, Jonglei State are reported to have entered Iwire and Agoro of Magwi County.

“What’s painful to us as the community leaders, is these people are moving with guns and the government is watching without doing anything,” said Ogoli William, a resident of Ayii Kit in Magwi County.