450,000 South Sudanese flee homes as armed herders overrun county

Some of the displaced residents of Kajo Keji in South Sudan camp at one of the schools in the area after they were attacked by armed pastoralists (Photo | Courtesy)

More than 450,000 people have fled their homes in Kajo Keji County, Central Equatoria State in South Sudan following a series of attacks allegedly by Dinka Bor herders.

The displaced residents are currently camping at different churches and schools in the area.

Mr Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, the chairperson of the Kajo Keji Community Organisation (KCO), told the Monitor in an interview last month that armed pastoralists from Bor killed 26 innocent civilians in cold blood while 27 others were still missing.

Two women – one of them an expectant mother – and 24 men were reportedly dragged out of their homes and gunned down in Lire Payam in Central Equatoria State’s Kajo Keji County during the attack.

Mr Tisa clarified that there is no fighting in Kajo Keji but the area has been overrun and occupied by members of the Dinka Bor community over the last year. The heavily armed herders, he said, have flooded the county with thousands of cattle.

“They proceeded to seize all the cattle, goats, and chickens owned by the local people and used local farms as grazing fields for their animals. If you resist them, you are dead. There is no fighting but it was just a massacre and we have not seen any reaction or action from the government, not even a statement,” he lamented.

Ms Julia Konga, who lost her daughter to the herders said: “On the fateful day (February 1 at around 5.30PM), some armed Dinka Bor herders came to our village and shot my pregnant daughter dead. A few moments later, their other colleagues joined and killed 24 men and another woman. Up to now, 27 of our relatives are still missing.”

She requested the government to beef up security and provide them with the necessary support, saying the situation in the camps ‘is very bad’.

Mr Ismael Duku, another displaced resident, said: “We don’t want war in South Sudan again. We need peace but now these cattle keepers are coming to disturb us. We don’t want them here. We need peace in South Sudan.”

Phanuel Dumo Jame Lokajasuk, the Kajo-Keji commissioner, said the government was ‘working hard to push away the herders’.

“They are hidden somewhere within the ranches but we are working hard to remove them by not fighting them but asking them to leave. Let them go back to their place of origin,” he told this publication on March 7.

The Central Equatoria State information minister, Dr Andruga Mabe Saveria, condemned the attack by armed Dinka Bor herders, saying the government is going to take action.