Catholic Bishop of Torit Diocese Stephen Ameyu recommended resolving the controversies around the states in the country by engaging South Sudanese.
‘This question of 10 states, 28 states or 32 states can be resolved by the people, by a referendum, so that we can settle it once and for all ‚Äì that people need 32, they need 28 or they need 10, that is the only solution for us in this country’, he told ACI Africa.
Bishop Ameyu said involvement of citizens in deciding about states’ boundaries and their number is because political leaders had failed over the years to ‘bring a unanimous agreement’.
He said leaders at the grassroots who are familiar with grievances around the land between states are the ones to be engaged in resolving the controversy.
‘Our traditional people, our traditional chiefs or rainmakers or landlords, know the interstate borders’, said the Catholic prelate.
He added that the traditional leaders know which people were staying there long time ago, I think this has to be really done in a traditional way.
The bishop suggested that the government provides support to the traditional leaders who are familiar with the territory of South Sudan at the very basic unit of society including the borders between different tribes.
Catholic Church Parliamentary Liaison’s officer Isaac Kungur Kenyi believes that ‘the real issue is the security issue, the cantonments, the training and the reunification of the army.’
He called upon the government ‘to be honest to itself and release the money to pre-transitional committee so that they can end the unfinished job’.