DEEPENING OF MALAKAL CRISES MID POINT TO EXPLOSION

What is happening with Simon Koun Pouch government in Malakal is leading rapidly to explosion similar to that of Pibor. Nuers have been mobilized from Jonglei and other parts of the state to come to Malakal in lieu of an eventual fighting that might erupt.

Last month, I have written about the danger posed by Mr. Simon Koun government in Upper Nile State. This was followed by appointment of town mayor that took over the duties of the commissioner and annexing three Payams of the county. The mayor is guarded by heavily armed bounty SPLA soldiers or militias.

The Mayor did reshuffling of community leaders who elected by the people replacing all the Shilluk with either Dinka or Nuer. A Shilluk Para-amount Chief who uses to conduct his court sessions in Malakal was instructed by the mayor to move to the west bank of the Nile.

Furthering the crises, Malakal town is surrounded by militias belonging to Mr. Simon Koun dressed in SPLA uniforms. He also incorporated the former JIUs in Anakdair into police forces and paid from Malakal town budget. These former militias are remnants of Gabriel Tanginyi forces from Lou and Fanjak Nuer. They are being utilized in Malakal for the purpose of destabilizing the state.

All this confusion was brought about by some Shilluk SPLM members in the State Legislative Assembly headed by Honorable member of Central Payam of Malakal town. He was awarded 40,000 South Sudanese Pounds by the governor.

The Shilluk communities are avoiding any conflict by being vigilant and quite. The above points are conducive enough to create insecurity. They are aware that this policy is to push them out of Malakal and parts of east bank which they now occupy. The policy and plan has been going on for long time starting with Nyirial-Lul which now called Binythaing take over by Akoka Dinka. Salva Kiir gave out Shilluk land of Pig to create Dinka County of Pigi. Lou-Nuer wants to take over Obel in Panyikango County to be one of their Payams. The Shilluk will not retaliate because they never heard anything from their leaders. The Shilluk are now helpless. Any resistance will lead them to be massacre like that of Pibor. The weapons of Shilluk were collected by George Athor to arm the Dinka. If they make mistake to confront the present administration forcefully then might get themselves kill or exposed them-selves to danger. There was a meeting held in Ulang last week between Dinka of Baliet and Lou-Nuer to plan on how to annex Obel to Abwong Payam.

The situation is getting from bad to worst each day. For instance, the mayor removed all the elected community leaders to replace them new pointed leaders which may aggravate public opinion against the government.

The mayor took all revenue sections of the county depriving the county of money to run the machinery of the government. The revenue is being divided between the governor and mayor as private enterprise. Once they remove the commissioner then will be no Makal County. The mayor is also removing the post signs of Makal County and replacing them with his own which he called Malakal Municipality. Makal County now will remain with only two Payams outside Malakal Town which make it unqualified to be considered as a county.

Let the governor take boll and brave action to abolish Makal County and not to go the bush to take parts of Shilluk land on the east bank and give to Dinka and Nuer. He is avoiding all peaceful solutions to resolve the conflict.

The Shilluk are humble people. They want the conflict to be resolve through border conference which is taking too long to take place. In the constitution, the borders should be maintained as they stood on     1-1-1956. Since certain tribes want to grab land of others like in Binythiang and Pigi, they do not want the conference to take place.

Juba is quite on these matters. Malakal is now at the mid-point of explosion. The war that is going on in Jonglei State will soon come to Upper Nile State.

Yorwin Otor can be reach at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.