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For Otto Washington Okwera, a farmer from South Sudan, cattle only bring destruction. “The cattle come and destroy all the things in the garden,” he said.
Okwera is the head of Agoro Payam, a village in Magwi county in the eastern Equatoria state of South Sudan. Its people grow corn and vegetables on small plots. But their livelihood is threatened by the influx of cattle herders, who have been forced to abandon their traditional pasture areas.
Disputes between farmers and herders are neither new nor unique to South Sudan. In much of Africa’s central belt, along the Sahel desert, a region that encompasses Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia, the constant tension between farmers and ranchers Through the use of the land, for generations, it has shaped the development of societies.
In South Sudan, where an estimated 80% of the population depends on livestock to some extent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, this age-old conflict has been exacerbated in recent years by war civilian, which has displaced nearly two million people. and climate change, which has dried up or flooded areas that were once fertile rangelands.
Villages like Agoro Payam are on the front line. Okwera doesn’t know what to do. You have tried to approach the shepherds directly, but this can be dangerous. “Cattle owners give us a hard life. When the cattle have eaten the crops from the garden and you go on and on, they will tell you that you want to steal their cattle and they will beat you thoroughly, ”he said.
He has also tried to get closer to local authorities, but they are equally powerless.
Growing insecurity
Joseph Oryem is the administrator of Agoro Payam. This makes him the highest ranking government official in the village. He has tried to raise the problems of farmers with cattle herders. But when he does, he encounters an even more powerful force: the South Sudanese army.
“Actually, I was not beaten by the ranchers but by these soldiers who were brought here to defend the cattle,” he said.
In many regions of the country, soldiers have been sent to accompany cattle herders, supposedly to keep the peace between herders and farmers. But in Agoro Payam, the soldiers have taken sides, according to Oryem.
The presence of the military has its own problems. One afternoon in July, a group of soldiers drank 45,000 Sudanese pounds ($ 813) of alcohol made by a woman in the village. They tried to pay for the alcohol with ammunition. When she asked for cash instead, they assaulted her.
Oryem witnessed the assault. When he tried to intervene, they also beat him, in such a way that they had to take him to the hospital. The soldiers were also unhappy with him because he had refused to assign grazing land to cattle herders.
“This has brought insecurity to my people,” he said.
Other local officials, including an officer from the Agoro Payam police station, have said that the arrival of the cattle herders coincided with an increase in crime in the area, especially rapes and kidnappings.
State Governor Louis Lobong echoed these concerns. He warned of new clashes between farmers and herders unless something changed quickly.
“People will die and we don’t want that. We need to talk, we need to understand why they are here, how long they will be here and when they will return, “he said. “These ranchers came and there was no information. They have never asked the host communities, ‘Can you allow us to graze?’ Or us, the state government. “
In the race
Meanwhile, he said, some farmers are fleeing the state in search of uncertain and possibly dangerous futures in other parts of the country, or even to refugee camps in neighboring Kenya and Uganda. “Our people are running.”
Patience. That’s what Abraham Makur, general secretary of the Magwi County Cattle Association, is asking. He understands that the arrival of tens of thousands of head of cattle to the area has placed a new burden on local residents.
But what other option do ranchers have?
“At the moment, there is no way we can tell the ranchers to return to Jonglei. [state in South Sudan], because there is nowhere where people can settle, ”he said.
South Sudan’s seven-year civil war officially ended in February, when the government signed a peace agreement with the main rebel movement. But that has not ended the conflict. In May, for example, more than 300 people were killed when fighting broke out in Jonglei state. Dozens of houses were raided and destroyed, and women and children were kidnapped.
The fighting centered in the town of Pieri, and was fueled by the same tensions that are straining the peace in Magwi County: competition for land between cattle herders and farmers.
Except this time, tensions boiled over, with devastating consequences.
As a result of the violence, some herders took their livestock in search of new pastures. They were soon followed by others fleeing the floods that devastated much of Jonglei during this year’s rainy season.
In total, more than 157,000 people from Jonglei were displaced. They were running too, herding their cattle in front of them.
Some headed south to Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, or even further south to Juba, the country’s capital.
Others headed southeast and ended up in the state of Eastern Equatoria, where they received a cold welcome.
When the floodwaters recede, the herders will take their livestock home, Makur said. Meanwhile, the cattle must eat.
Executive Orders
In 2017, President Salva Kiir, who owns one of the largest cattle herds in the country, issued an executive order: he ordered all herders to leave the Equatoria region and return to their place of origin. Most of the people in Equatoria grow crops, he said.
According to the army spokesman, Lul Ruai Koang, the order worked. “At that time, everyone who came from neighboring states was ordered to return with their livestock. Those who came from the lakes left, all those who came from Western Equatoria left, and those from Jonglei left, ”said Koang.
But now that the cattle herders have returned to Eastern Equatoria. Koang said that the president must issue a new edict, only then can the army act.
But not everyone is convinced that the president’s order worked. In Eastern Equatoria, Ma’di’s leaders in Pageri county said it was never enforced and that they continued to have problems with herders.
It is also unclear where exactly the cattle herders would return, given that their traditional rangelands are shrinking as a result of climate change.
“I am not an animal steward,” said Oryem, the local government official at Agoro Payam, dejectedly. “I am a manager of human beings.”
This story is co-edited with The Insider from South Sudan.
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