Map of Western Bahr el Ghazal State. (-)

The Minister of Information in Western Bahr el Ghazal has clarified that the heavy deployment in parts of the state is a security measure to prevent conflicts between cattle keepers and farmers.

On Friday, the Mayor of Wau town complained that SSPDF deployed soldiers within and outside Wau town.

Paulino Said Uku said the move caused panic among the residents of Natabu and Medan Tarii – areas situated 5 miles west of Wau town.

Uku said the deployment by SSPDF also reportedly prompted SPLA-IO to do the same in Baggari, Besillia and Farajjala areas in Wau County.

According to Mayor Uku, the citizens were not informed about the motive of the deployment.

Adison Arkanjelo the Minister of Information in Western Bahr el Ghazal.

Arkanjelo admitted that the abrupt deployment saying, it created rumors causing fear among the citizens.

“Last week there was a lot of rumors about the movement of the cattle in the area, and for the sake of the security situation not to destabilize in the presence of the cattle keepers, especially those who are always moving from the Northern Bahr El ghazal and Warrap towards Southern side to Western Bahr El ghazal, the state security committee decided to protect and to avoid friction between cattle keepers and farmers”, Mr. Arkanjelo explains to Eye Radio.

“There are also opposition forces in their different camps may not have full information about the process that happened and also they did their deployment for some forces”, he adds.

Western Bahr el Ghazal state has witnessed several insecurity situations since 2013 and 2016 incidents and also insecurity caused by the migrated pastoralists from Warap and Northern Bahr el Ghazal state and farmers.