Torit State Inter-Church Council in partnership with Norwegian Church Aid or NCA on Tuesday conducted prayer for peace rally in Hiyala of Torit East County.
Torit East County records the highest number of insecurity including cattle theft, road ambushes, and inter-communal conflicts among others in the past few years which has improved significantly, Radio Emmanuel reports.
NCA women peace building officer, who led the delegation to Hiyala, Agnes Achayo says, the prayer aims at uniting and restoring relationship among communities.
She adds that most communities in the area are faced with cattle raiding; land grabbing which creates conflict and poor relationship among them.
‘The prayer rally for peace of which we always working with collaboration of ICC as NCA and ICC is one of our partner that is representing South Sudan Council of Churches at the state forum’, she explains.
Achayo adds that ‘the theme for the prayer rally in Kiyala is actually taken from Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 13, which says ‘I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joys, their sorrows into gladness’ The reason as to why we selected this theme for today’s prayer rally is that our community is full of conflict, they are prone to dynamics of conflicts which are rising from cattle keeping, land grabbing which rising from historical issues that are there within our communities’, she further indicates.
Samson Atari, a resident of Hiyala, believes prayer is the only solution to problems among communities in the area.
He stresses that ‘it is good that it will change our community that was not knowing about the church and that do not know bad things and politics, this will now bring some changes that brings development in our community but if some of the counties and villages that coming from Ilole, Tirangore and Loguruny it could have been a very good achievement’.
Ibalu Josephine, another resident calls on the local population to unite and work for peace and development in the area.
‘This prayers is good which encourages people to go ahead so that people will stay in peaceful hearts, let people not separate themselves’, he encourages.
Meanwhile Toby Majak Thomas, commissioner of Torit East County says the security situation is normal in the area.
‘The security situation is normal you there is movement of people going from the county to the state, others event move at night with exception of some people if they get drunk and fought themselves that is not a matter’ he says.
The commissioner discloses that ‘the agricultural situation was ok, but this year the rain was so heavy whereby it has drawn many gardens and including some houses. The government of the state will know when to do that’, he adds.
‘The cattle raiding is not so much I think we had only counties about two which had happened last month whereby some people attempted to raid from Hauwe and one of them was shot he was suspected to come from Kimotong County’, the commissioner says.
The speakers made the remarks to Radio Emmanuel on Tuesday in Hiyala.