The Governor of Central Equatoria State, Emmanuel Adil Anthony, has called on the communities of Morobo and Yei River counties to engage the holdout groups to denounce violence.
He made the plea on Saturday while addressing the communities of Adil Kaya Payam in Morobo County.
Governor Adil urged the communities to hold peace and unity rallies in their respective areas and continue engaging the holdout groups to join the government and help rebuild their country.
On Friday, Adil was accompanied by state government officials to Morobo and Yei to persuade the communities and their leaders to embrace peace.
Speaking to The City Review from Yei, the Minister of Information and Communication of Central Equatoria State, Dr Andruga Mabe Saverio, said the governor and his delegation were still in the area touring the villages to encourage the local people to return home.
“The conflict has completely devastated the area. We came here with the idea of the communities’ returning home so that the development can go to their area, ” Dr. Mabe said.
“We want to encourage peace and we are going to visit all the countries, preaching peace because we want them not to continue with war, especially the youth,” he added.
Dr. Mabe said the tour of the rural areas will continue as long as the resources are available.
He said the team advised each community they visited to return to their ancestral homes to start resettlement so that the state government moves on to develop the area.
Appeal for peace
“We plan to visit all the counties in the state, and this depends on the resources because we have bad roads all over. We need the communities the local leaders to get prepared in advance,” he said.
While at the Kaya border, Dr. Mabe said that Governor Adil interacted extensively with the local authorities in the customs and Ministry of Interior’s directorate and encouraged them to continue doing their work professionally.
They also shared some of their fundamental concerns, which they said needed the urgent intervention of the State Government at Kaya border point.
The tour by the CES officials came a few days after the conclusion of the fifth governors’ forum in Juba, which ended with calls to promote peace at the grassroots level to enable internally displaced persons and refugees to return home.
In April this year, Adil said holdout groups, armed groups and straying herders were to blame for the soaring insecurity that is delaying the returns of civilian refugees and stopping farming activities in the state.
The state has been experiencing roadside ambushes where travellers have been attacked and vehicles burned along the highways from Juba to other states and along the Juba –Yei road.
According to Adil, these attacks were perpetrated by armed holdout groups, cattle keepers, and people driven by an unrivalled desire to forcefully grab land from rightful owners.
However, last week, President Salva Kiir finally ordered the resumption of the Rome peace talks after he unilaterally suspended them in August over the Juba-Nimule highway attack.