By Philip Buda Ladu
The unified forces once graduated will be first tasked to embark on disarmament exercise, collecting the rampant guns in the hands of the civilians said the Vice President for Economic Cluster Dr. James Wani Igga.
He said firearms are now rampant in the hands of civil population that they hold guns in their houses and use them for robbery and unnecessary killings.
Dr. Igga raised the security concern in the country ahead of the scheduled visit to Juba of the Catholic Holy Father, Pope Francis. He was speaking at a thanks giving prayer for Ambassador Monday Semaya Kumba, the newly appointed head of Mission to the People’s Republic of China.
“South Sudanese, we hold guns in our houses, in our residents and guns are now rampant for stealing within the towns and the villages. This country will not move ahead. There is no country where everybody holds a gun, wherever you go,” Dr. lamented.
“So our guns that our people use to kill themselves without any reason, if we graduate the unified forces we will start with disarmament of the civilians. Because guns must be taken out from people’s hands,” he noted.
“If you go to Bahr el Ghazal, this residential area will clash with that, Abyei will fight with those of Twic, you will find those of Tonj clashing with Bentiu, you come to the other side here those of Jonglei goes up to Eastern Equatoria kill people, come to Central Equatoria killing people and death is now rampant, people are dying like flies,” Dr. Igga exclaimed.
He hinted that there is no country like South Sudan with such inhuman things, “South Sudanese be careful, we must stop that otherwise we are not a nation,” Igga cautioned.
“We will show our muscles that we are a nation. And the criminals wishing that the Pope shouldn’t come here, supposed should explode out,” the Vice President for Economic Cluster echoed.
He criticized those people who are always wishing for the bad, saying “yesterday a number of people died on the road, so and so number was burnt in a certain village. Yet those might be some of the places the Pope wants to visit”.
[“Let us organize our home before the visit of the Pope my people, let us not come and ashame the Pope when he comes and see, “Papa ma arif gali nina sambala jede,” a Juba Arabic phrase literally meaning, the Pope doesn’t know that we are reckless like this! So let us organize ourselves very fast, the rampant killings we must surrender our guns”] Dr, Igga said.
Vice President Dr. Igga applauded President Kiir saying he had given strong orders, for deploying soldiers to the places where people were killed recently due to confrontations between cattle keepers and farmers.
Dr. Igga said soldiers have been sent starting last Thursday to parts of Eastern Equatoria State to drive herders who have been causing havoc resulting in killings, burning of houses and destruction of properties of indigenous communities to their places of origin.
“Because you bring cattle that eat vegetable, or whatever farm produce, it’s not fair because the crops are the cattle of the farmer if it is okra, that okra is his cow, so it’s totally unacceptable it is unfair,” Dr. Igga reiterated saying the herders must be driven to their places of origin.