By Charles K Mark
Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) has urged the top leaders to take urgent action against communal killings.
CEPO’s Executive Director, Edmund Yakani urged, especially the state governors, to take a proactive role in the prevention of the growing trend of deadly armed communal violence.
According to Yakani, the civil society has registered the highest atrocities, in the first 36 days of the year, since formation of the transitional unity government (R-TGoNU).
“We have registered over 150 lives lost due to armed communal violence. In weeks only, we have registered over 180 injuries,” he stressed.
CEPO said it registered huge property destruction and the burning of markets in the recent trend of armed communal violence, specifically in the Bahr el Ghazal region.
According to Yakani, communities committing the atrocities undermined the presidential order on the prevention of violence in the Bahr el Ghazal region.
“I feel that certain players somewhere undermine the directives of the president by waging, supplying, or fueling this growing trend of armed communal violence in the region of Bahr el Ghazal,” he noted.
Yakani called for the commissioning of an urgent investigation into the growing trend of violence among communities.
“I wish that the Ministers of Interior, Defence, and National Security, including State Governors witnessing this violence, commission a quick investigation on this growing trend of armed violence in the region of Bahr el Ghazal,” CEPO’s Boss appealed.
However, Yakani’s call came after the government had deployed a joint security force along bordering areas of Jur River County, Western Bahr El Ghazal (WBGs) and Warrap State to avert further violence.
President, Salva Kiir Mayardit and his first deputy, Dr. Riek Machar, who met on Monday, also called for a ceasefire among the Twic-Ngok communities.