By Otto Abut
The Eastern Equatoria State Governor, HE. Louis Lobong Lojore said land grabbing and armed cattle keepers are the major security threats in the Equatoria Region.
Lobong made the remarks on Wednesday in his presentation on the 3rd day of the 8th Governors’ Forum in Juba
The Governor mentioned that the communities in the Equatoria Region are farmers who entirely depend on agricultural products and need no interference from cattle.
“Your Excellency this issue the Vice President Taban mentioned yesterday, (Cattle) is not only the problem of central Equatoria or limited to Magwi County but all of Equatorian (Region) our people are not happy with the way the cattle keepers are coming to Equatoria and the way they behave and it is one of the issues causing us insecurity.
Long emphasized that the IDPs from the cattle-keeping region should be given a different area from the farmers’ region to minimize further conflicts between the farmers and the cattle-keepers.
“Some of the reasons being used by the holdout group is this issue of cattle in Equatoria and the issue of the land, the land grabbing which I called Land raiding in Equatoria particularly in Central Equatoria here, we are creating communal villages in the city if you go beyond Munuki, you will find that villages have been created there, one Ethnic community is taking a big area for themselves.”