According to security reports, the revenge attacks that happened between Sunday and Wednesday last week left at least three refugees from the clans of Boul and Fangak under the Nuer tribe dead.
The Police in Lamwo District have
arrested 77 South Sudanese refugees in Palabek Refugee Settlement in
Lamwo District following revenge attacks between clan members of the Nuer
tribe.
According to security reports,
the attacks that happened between Sunday and Wednesday last week left
at least three refugees from the clans of Boul and Fangak under the Nuer tribe dead.
The Police have identified the
deceased as Kong Riek 29 from the Fangak Clan who was stabbed with a knife, Lam
Mot 26, and Gatwich Machar both from the Boul Clan who were hacked.
John Pasquale Udo, the Refugee Welfare
Council Chairperson of Palabek Refugee Settlement told URN in an interview the
revenge attacks stemmed from fights between two pupils from the Fangak and Boul
clans while at school.
According to Udo, one of the parents
of the children from the Boul clan later mobilized their clan mates for revenge
leading to the stabbing to death of a member of the Fangak Community in Zone 5,
Block 6 on Sunday last week.
He notes that Fangak clan mates in revenge later
mobilized and attacked the Boul clan community, killing two of their members.
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Udo notes that out of the 27 Tribes
within Palabek Refugee Settlement, inter-clan conflicts are persistently being registered
among the Nuer tribe and called for the urgent intervention of both security
and humanitarian agencies.
Just four months ago according to
Udo, clashes between the Boul and Fangak clan members left two refugees dead
within the settlement while the third victim was followed and killed from neighboring
Kenya, where he had fled.
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Geoffrey Osborn Oceng, the Lamwo Resident
District Commissioner notes that the intervention of security personnel comprising
both the army and police helped to quell the bloody tension among the two clans
adding the situation is now calm.
He says a total of 77 male
suspects among them 11 Juveniles are currently being detained at Palabek
Refugee Settlement Police Post for interrogation and screening. The suspects
were arrested between Wednesday and Saturday morning.
Oceng explains that there is a
need to beef up security within the settlement including adding six police
posts to address the manpower gap.
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According to Security reports, out
of the 77 suspects arrested, 26, the majority being youth were found not to have been registered as refugees at the Palabek Refugee settlement.
Oceng however says such
discoveries reveal a much bigger security threat within the settlement and the district
adding that there is a need to have a fresh verification of refugees to weed
out illegal settlers.
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The latest incident brings to
six, the total number of refugees from the Nuer tribe who have been killed in inter-clan revenge attacks since December last year in the Palabek Refugee settlement.
Palabek Refugee Settlement in
Palabek Ogili Sub- County opened in April 2017 and currently hosts a total population
of 80,898 refugees, the majority from South Sudan.
