The Federal Republic of Ethiopia as well as the Gambella National Regional State government should now get serious on South Sudan conflict and not let it spill over its border. Currently there are over 100, 000 South Sudanese refugees in western Ethiopia mainly from Nuer tribe who have fled the violent in war ravaged country and sought refuge in Gambella.
A reliable source has confirmed that a delegation of Nuer from the South Sudan government of Salva Kiir in Juba is heading to Gambella or has already arrived to bribe the Nuer youth who have sought refuge in the region. As much of the inhabited areas by the Nuer in South Sudan fall under the rebel control in response to the indiscriminate killing of the Nuer by Salva Kiir’s tribal army, Kiir’s administration wants to recruit these youths in the refugee camps offering them money to go and fight the rebels. The name of these Nuer whom Kiir had sent include:
- Peter Lam Both
- Gatwech Lam Puoch
- Bol Puot Yut
- Kach Puoch Mar
- Liech Bany Keat
- Khor Diw Gach
It was reported that these group of Nuer who do not care about the death of their citizens in Juba possess more than $35,000 with them to bribe their fellow tribes in defence of a monster. This is not much a problem for Ethiopia particularly Gambella as that is a South Sudanese affair. However, people especially Ethiopia’s security agencies would needs to think beyond their lenses.
What if any of these delegate is killed by traumatised families of victims who were discriminately killed and burnt alive in Juba as if they were not humans. Won’t that create a fight between Nuer in the camps?
Again won’t that turn Gambella into a war zone among the refugees who came to seek peace but yet again experience war they left behind which security agencies should prevent if they do not allow these people enter the region or Ethiopia as a whole?
What would be Ethiopia’s neutrality like on this issue when this group of people flow down from Gambella toward South Sudan and stab rebels at the back? Such a scenario should not be taken with a grain of salt given countless number of issue of this kind which have happened in the past during the liberation struggle.
As south Sudan under Kiir has defined its policies militarily which ultimately transformed their country into a killing field, then they should confine their problems to themselves and carry it over on their territorial borders and not beyond.
To prevent any blood being dropped in Ethiopia soil as the result of the South Sudanese war, the Gambella National Regional State security along with the Federal government should revoke visas of the said individuals and deport them to Juba as soon as possible. Prior to South Sudanese independent many people from Gambella lost their lives in the hands of SPLA and this time around no one would like the repeat of the past. These people should be deported as soon as possible if they have already arrived in Ethiopia.
