{UAH} ACHOLI MOBS TAKING LAWS IN THEIR HANDS IN LYII

EES KITT: Acholi Taking Laws In Hand, choosing Primitive Violence On Neigbor

Acholi Mobs taking laws in their hands in Iyii (Kitt). They went physical on their neighbor ethnic tribe.

In an unprecedented move Acholi mobs taking the law into their hands assaulted members of Madi community in Iyii (Kit) soon after the departure of members of the Fact Finding Committee formed by the Governor of Eastern Equatoria State following a recent border dispute between the two communities, Acholi and Madi inhabitants of Magwi County. Three of the Madi all of them elders whose names are given as Germano Loku and Uliya Tombe are in very critical conditions after receiving one hundred lashes each and are now being treated in Nimule Rural Hospital  some 53 miles south of their village while the third victim has gone into hiding fearing further attack by their assaulters.

The Fact Finding Team headed by Morris Kaunda Merissiya visited Iyii on 28^th September to acquaint themselves with facts concerning the original inhabitants of the area and collect data like maps, documents on historical accounts about the place and its original people and to question elders, chiefs and intellectuals from the two communities to extract facts about their knowledge of the area.

During the presence of the committee in Iyii two different meetings were organized for the two communities in their respective locations but the Acholi attempted to storm the Madi gathering. They were however prevented by the security personnel that accompanied the Committee.

Iyii is one of the four areas which the two communities, Acholi and Madi contest seriously the other being Opari, Amee and Owinykibul. But in Opari there is no presence of Acholi because the place has been Madi area long before colonialisation of this part of South Sudan.

The Madi say this is their ancestral land and are surprised why the Acholi should claim it now since they the Madi have lived in it for over seven hundred years according to Western historians like J. P. Crazzolara the Italian researcher who is an authority on Luo migrations and history, Richard Gray the author of History of Southern Sudan, C. G. Seligman the writer of Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (1965), Professor Merrick Posnansky, Sanderson L. M. Passmore (1979) and L. F. Nalder (1936) who have documented that Opari is Madi and today there live there some 43 clans without any single Acholi clan in sight.

As for Iyii, the Madi say it is part of their ancestral land which extends from River Lupaingwe (‘Lupa’ means stone and ‘ingwe’ white hence Whitestone River and Barijokwe Hill now lying in Bari territory although the new Acholi documents include it in their domain. Because the British had drawn a map which gives definite areas for each tribe for administrative convenience, today the Madi do not claim the Lupaingwe area as theirs from the Bari considering their previous occupation as history.

The area where Iyii lies has been a place where the Madi in Moli and Lokoya-Langabu had seen skirmishes in early twentieth century and was uninhabited due to the tribal feuds but when the colonial government in Mongalla constructed the Juba-Nimule Road in the period 1928-32, the area was opened for occupation and naturally the first people to come here were some ten Madi clans led by the larger Logili clan in 1934.

The Juba-Nimule Road also attracted the people from southern Bari areas of Nyarabanga and Karpeto and they came to Iyii in about 1936. The first Acholi to come to Iyii originated from Panyikwara and they emigrated in about 1939 led by elder Lejikoreng of Orolo clan building their villages south of those of Madi and so when the members of the latter wanted to visit relatives in Moli and other parts of Madi land they had to cross Acholi villages.

As to Owinykibul, the Fact Finding Committee is said to have failed to meet the members of the two communities there because the local chief is said to have led a disorganized Acholi youth who caused commotion leading to abandoning of the plan to meet the inhabitants. Since 1972, following the Addis Ababa Agreement, most Acholi originally from Katire Ayom, Abara and Obbo on return from refuge in Uganda had settled in Owinykibul making their presence significant as compared to Madi most of whom during the same period have gone back to their old homesteads in Opari and its adjoining villages of Nyongwa Gwere, Logopi, Pakworo, Male, Nyakaningwa and others.

Further reports of the situation in Magwi county say the Acholi youth have erected roadblocks at Abara and Ame-junction threatening Madi individuals traveling in public transport vehicles a situation which needs immediate attention of the government authorities.

There is a Commissioner based in Magwi but when asked by the MP of Pageri Payam, Honorable Florence Nighty Otto about the incident in Iyii he expressed lack of knowledge.

 

 

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
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