Lack of basic services, including schools, health facilities, roads, water points, telecommunications, has been identified as one factor responsible for chronic conflict in Jonglei State.
Eighty four chiefs, elders, women and youth representing all eleven counties and all six communities of Jonglei State met in the Jonglei State Communities Conference in Bor from May 1 to 5.In the conference’s resolutions and recommendations the participants indicated that lack of development spurs violence in the state and food shortages are cause and consequence of conflict.
The Conference expressed its concern and alarm at the worsening conflict and insecurity amongst the communities in Jonglei State, and affirmed its desire and commitment for peace, reconciliation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
It called for alternative livelihoods for youth to encourage them to refrain from cattle raiding and fighting.
The Conference decided to check on theft of livestock through community policing. Chiefs are mandated to control thieves, raiders and abductors.
The Conference declared an amnesty to all cattle stolen in the past and waved the right to compensation to all people who were killed until the present disarmament exercise.
To beef up security in the state, the Conference recommended that the army continues the disarmament exercise, aerial surveillance, creation of an anti-stock theft unit, and regulation of movement of livestock at borders between payams, counties and states.
To combat unemployment, the state should recruit youths from Jonglei into the organized forces and employ them in the extraction of natural resources among other resolutions.