Africa

Players, team-mates and coaches praise Egypt and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah on winning the 2017 BBC African Footballer of the Year award.

December 11, 2017 (JUBA)- South Sudan president on Monday issued an order declaring the state of emergency in the three states of Gok, Western and Eastern Lakes.

The order announced by the state-owned South Sudan on Monday evening ordered the government forces to move into the region and carry out forceful disarmament with immediate effect.

The president issued the order after legislators from Gok, Western and Eastern Lakes petitioned him to declare a state of emergency in the region and order for forceful disarmament. the implementation of these measures would help protect lives and properties of the civilians.

The representatives o the area were prompted by clashes in which scores were killed in a series of clashes among youth in Chueichok, Mayom and Apet areas.

Several houses were also burnt to ashes in the violence that erupted last week over a land dispute in Malek County.

The authorities have however reported that the situation in the area which has witnessed surge insecurity has improved following the recent deployment of security forces.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (JUBA) - South Sudan president Salva Kiir has rejected a proposal calling for the establishment of a technocratic government in which no political leader seeking to contest in elections, is allowed to participate.

South Sudanese president Salva Kiir (AFP)

The technocrat government, the regional bloc (IGAD) said in a proposal submitted to the pre-revitalization forum, would prepare a level ground and create a conducive environment for the parties that would contest in the forthcoming elections.

The people would participate in the government would be drawn from the three regions of Upper Nile, Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal.

The office holders, according to IGAD's proposal, are envisaged to be men and women selected and vetted on their qualification and professional expertise or experience irrespective of any affiliations to a political party, civil society group or association.

The new proposal has, however, not gone well with President Kiir, prompting the South Sudanese leader to question its legitimacy and who mandated it.

"I have been hearing around some people have come out with proposals and their views have appeared in the pre forum and the report of the IGAD special envoy.

Recently my opinion who asked on this proposal by some of the regional leaders I met when I went to Kenya to attend the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta and I said I did not see the proposal and so i would not comment before I see it,” said Kiir during a meeting with his advisors on Monday.

He added, “Who are these people making this proposal. Who gave them the mandate to make such a proposal without the people?”

The South Sudanese leader has now ordered that the summary of the proposal from IGAD be given to him by Wednesday this week.

"If you have this report and it is one of the reports I am yet to receive, please make sure it is summarized and I get the summary by Wednesday. There are people who assign themselves and what they do get out in the name of the people,” stressed the president.

He added, “The people who do these need to be known".

President Kiir, sources in the coalition in the government told Sudan Tribune, is opposed to a new government without him because he believes it is part of the strategy to prevent him from contesting in the next general elections.

"All these proposals are tactics to implement the regime change agenda. So whenever their plans have been frustrated, they go come out with other strategies. The objective remains the same and I don't think people will accept. The people making this proposal should come out to tell the citizens", further said the president.

A former South Sudanese minister in the coalition government supported a technocratic transitional government in the war-torn nation, saying it will deliver the transition to its “intended” purpose.

According to Lam Akol, Sudan, from which South Sudan seceded in July 2011, has seen two technocratic transitional governments in its modern history and that both came about after popular Uprisings overthrew the military juntas (in 1964 and 1985) and led the transition to democratic elections.

"Of course, technocratic transitional governments are not without problems, but taking all factors into account they come up far on top compared with a transitional government of politicians if the purpose is to prepare a level field for all", Akol wrote in an opinion Sudan Tribune published in September.

“That purpose is to prepare a level ground for all citizens for the country to leave its troubled past behind and embark on a truly democratic path,” he added.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - President of the Central African Republic (CAF) Faustin-Archange Touadéra on Monday has arrived in Khartoum on an official two-day visit.

Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir greets CAR elected President Faustin Archange Touadéra in Khartoum on 27 March 2016 (Photo SUNA)

Touadéra, who was accompanied by a senior delegation, was received by President Omer al-Bashir and a number of ministers and senior government official at Khartoum airport.

The visiting president would hold bilateral talks with al-Bashir to discuss ways to promote mutual cooperation.

Elected in March 2016, Touadéra has pledged to end violence in the troubled country, which was seized by religious and inter-communal conflict from 2013, when mostly Muslim Seleka rebels overthrew long-time ruler Francois Bozize.

During a visit to Khartoum upon his election, Touadéra demanded Sudan to support his effort to bring peace and stability to his country.

The CAR shares a long border with Sudan's western Darfur region.

In the past years, the CAR governments discussed ways to join Chad-Sudan joint border patrols with the two countries but the political instability in Bangui prevented the poor country from joining this force.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (NYALA) - The first batch of Sudanese refugees in the Central African Republic will return to South Darfur state Tuesday in a repatriation operation by the Un refugees agency (UNHCR).

Participants of the Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees Conference at the Koral Hotel in Nyala, South Darfur on 26 March 2013 (Photo by Albert Gonzalez Farran - UNAMID)

There are hundreds of Sudanese refugees from Darfur in the north-east of the Central African Republic since the eruption of an insurgency in the western Sudan region.

Voluntary return commissioner Taj Eddin Ibrahim said the first batch of 180 returnees would land at Nyala airport on two planes.

Ibrahim said that the transportation of the 1446 refugees who accepted the voluntary repatriation to their home area will continue until the fifth of January.

The Sudanese official further told Darfur 24 that each refugee will receive $ 150 plus $ 50 for his children at the airport of Bangui. Also, upon their arrival at Nyala airport, every returnee will be handed over five thousand Sudanese pounds.

He noted that the arrangements for the repatriation of refugees were coordinated by the UNHCR and the refugee-governmental agency.

The Sudanese government voluntary repatriation commission has to prepare the villages to which refugees will return, especially providing basic services and security.

UN officials say nearly one-third of Darfur's population remained in displacement refugee camps because anxiety about security and lack of confidence about future prospects continue to keep many people from returning to their home areas.

Further, they point to the need for a peace agreement with the armed groups even if the armed clashes between Government and non-signatory forces have subsided and the government forces control the region.

Sudanese officials, however, point the need for financial support for recovery and development projects, stressing that the international community didn't honour its commitments in support of peace in the Darfur region.

The returnees will be transported to their villages in Radum locality, about 400 kilometres from Nyala.

The UNHCR provided six-month food for returnees, while the Sudanese authorities provide water, education and health services and set up a police station.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (KAMPALA) – The South Sudanese lawmaker killed by unknown gunmen last week has been buried in Uganda.

Jacob Kuwinsuk Gale, a lawmaker representing South Sudan's Yei River State, who was killed during a visit to hold talks with the South Sudanese refugees and locals who fled South Sudan due to the country's civil war.

No rebel group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the lawmaker's killing.

The North Western police spokesperson, Josephine Angucia was quoted saying the slain lawmaker's relatives in Uganda agreed to bury the Kuwinsuk in Yumbe district due insecurity in his country.

"He has been buried temporarily in Dongoture village in Kerwa Sub-county in Yumbe District," the police officer told Daily Monitor.

"The district security team has been meeting to discuss ways of intercepting those carrying illegal guns especially at the Uganda-South Sudan borders," she added.

The police say investigations are underway, but no arrests made.

Kuwinsuk served as the chairperson for members' affairs, gender and human rights committee in the assembly.

Last week, two South Sudanese were beheaded in the northern Ugandan district of Moyo.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (JUBA) - A team of experts from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights began a six-day visit to South Sudan on Monday to discuss the current human rights situation in the war-torn nation.

A general view of participants during the 29th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 3 July 2015 - (UN Photo)

The two Commissioners, Yasmin Sooka and Andrew Clapham, are scheduled to meet government officials including key ministers and the First Vice President, members of civil society, religious leaders, diplomats, and UN agencies and staff of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), including the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan, David Shearer.

Sooka and Clapham will visit camps for internally displaced persons across the country, including UNMISS Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites, to meet the people living there, community leaders and civil society organisations.

South Sudan continues to be dogged by violence, which has killed tens of thousands and forced millions others to flee their homes.

The conflict began in December 2013 following accusations by President Salva Kiir that his then-deputy Riek Machar was plotting to overthrow his government. Machar denied the allegations but then went on to mobilize a rebel force to fight the government.

A peace deal signed in 2015 saw the formation of a unity government led by Kiir and Machar, but did not last long as clashes broke out in the capital in July 2016.

Regional leaders and the international community are urging the warring factions to engage in talks to end the conflict. Machar however remains in South Africa where he went to seek medical attention following attacks in 2016, but has not been able to return to South Sudan.

The UN experts, upon completing their visit of South Sudan, will head to Uganda and Ethiopia, where they will also visit refugee camps and settlements along the South Sudanese border.

They are also scheduled to meet with African Union leaders, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), senior UN officials, as well as other members of the international community and opposition groups in Addis Ababa.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) Monday has said it will refer Jordan to the UN Security Council for its failure to arrest the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir.

Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC on charges of genocide and war crimes, had attended an Arab League summit in Amman last March.

Jordan is a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC since 2002 and has an obligation to enforce the ICC arrest warrant for al-Bashir.

In a statement on Monday, the Hague-based court accused Jordan of failing to comply with its obligations under the Rome Statute.

“The Chamber (Pre-Trial Chamber II) decided to refer the matter of Jordan's non-compliance to the Assembly of States Parties of the Rome Statute and the United Nations Security Council,” the statement read.

The ICC issued two arrest warrants against al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Darfur.

However, al-Bashir denied the allegations and accused the court of being political. He has continued to travel freely in Africa, Arab countries and Asia, defying the ICC arrest warrants.

Between 13 and 15 June 2015 he visited South Africa for the meeting of the African Union summit in Johannesburg. Pretoria, who is also a member of the ICC, refused to arrest him.

The ICC said South Africa failed in its duty to arrest al-Bashir when he was in the country but considered its referral to the Assembly of States Parties or the UN Security Council was not warranted.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - The Public Order Court judge in Khartoum on Monday has delayed the trial of a female rights activist accused of wearing indecent clothing.

In December 2010 shocking images were circulated on the Internet on brutal whipping of a young woman, by uniformed police

Sudan outlawed “indecent or immoral dress” in 1991. Under Article 152 of the Criminal Code, Public Order Police (POP) can arrest anyone who isn't dressed appropriately.

Wini Omer was intercepted by a prosecutor and a police officer as she was leaving her work place at Khartoum 3 neighbourhood on Sunday afternoon and has been taken to the POP station for wearing indecent clothing.

The POP detained Wini for five hours before she was released on bail.

“I was wearing the same clothes that I wore on [Sunday] morning during the trial of the [24 girls], I was wearing a skirt, a blouse and a scarf,” wrote Wini on her Facebook page

The POP filed charges against Wini under Article 152 at the Public Order Court in Khartoum.

In 2010, a former reporter who was working for the United Nations at the time of her arrest, Hussein has publicized her case, posing in loose trousers she was arrested in for photos and calling for media support.

Under international pressure and intense media coverage, Hussein was spared the 40 lashes stipulated under the charge and was fined an equivalent of $200.

It is noteworthy that a Khartoum court on Sunday acquitted 24 girls accused of wearing indecent clothes at a women's party.

The young women most of them are from South Sudan were arrested last Thursday for wearing short skirts and tighten trousers in a women's concert in Al-Mamoura district south of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

The Sudanese people have been trying to break the wall of isolation imposed upon them by the government through the Public Order Act (POA) which prohibits women from wearing tight pants, or sometimes any pants, and bans public and private parties after midnight.

The Sudanese authorities imposed the POA claiming that it will prevent the negative behaviours in the society.

However, civil society activists demand the government to repeal laws that violate human rights and contradict with the 2005 Sudanese constitution and the international conventions including the POA.

(ST)

December 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir will head to Istanbul Tuesday to take part in an urgent meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over Jerusalem.

The purpose of the extraordinary head of states and government meeting is to coordinate a response to the recognition by U.S. President Donald Trump of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

On Wednesday 6 December, immediately after Trump made public his decision on Jerusalem, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan who is also the head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation called for an extraordinary meeting on 13 December to take a unified reaction to this development.

Bashir travel to Turkey was announced on Monday evening by official Sudan News Agency (SUNA).

The Sudanese presidency last Wednesday said that President al-Bashir had received a telephone call from President Erdogan who invited him to the extraordinary Islamic summit over the holy city.

Speaking in Istanbul on Sunday 10 December President Erdogan said he explained to the OIC leaders that the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital violates the international law, diplomacy and humanity.

"With the roadmap, we will create during the OIC meeting, we will show that (Trump's) decision will not be easy to implement," he said.

Founded in 1969, the OIC comprises 57 member states representing over 1.6 billion Muslim. Its purpose is to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony".

(ST)

Omar Al Bashir recently travelled to countries that recognize the International Criminal Court (ICC) but none arrested or surrendered the Sudanese President, the ICC Prosecutor today told the United Nations Security Council.

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By Hon Arop Madut Arop

As I was reading the last proof of my new book on the Ngok Dinka history, which is currently with the printers, somebody sent me a recorded voice message purportedly given by Uncle Bona Malwal in his recent press conference in Khartoum. In the voice message, it would appear that Uncle Bona Malwal was answering questions from journalists about a number of sensitive issues including a so-called Abyei Area controversy. From Uncle Bona Malwal press statement, which I believed was staged to enable him to air some of his frustrations about a number of issues which had in not very distant past, led to his retiring from politics; Some facts beg a positive response from the concerned citizens of Ngok Dinka Region, which by accident of politics, has become known as Abyei area.

But as most of the issues discussed by Uncle Bona Malwal in his Khartoum conference were his own personal opinions, I will only comment on some of the important issues that struck me in the face. But before I discuss the issues raised by Uncle Bona Malwal, I would like to appeal to my great and resilient people of the Ngok Atungdiak not to react negatively and used abusive language in their response to Uncle Bona Malwal assertion that; Abyei area is a Sudanese for the following reasons.

Firstly, Uncle Bona Malwal is one of our respectable political figures. On a number of occasions, in the past, Uncle Bona had been standing tall among our important elders. He undeniably been seen championing not only the interest of the entire people of South Sudan but also that of the people of Abyei region. However, by default, if Uncle Bona Malwal has changed his leadership style and priorities today, he should be forgiven because according to sociologists, any human being changes his/her way of life every eight years. Additionally, human being life goes through three stages: as a child, as an adult and as an elderly. Naturally, each of these stages has its own dynamics through which an individual behaviour and public performances could be judged.

The second reason why our Ngok Dinka youths should not respond negatively to Uncle Bona Malwal's adopted Khartoum slogan (that Abyei is a part of Sudan), is that, in our time honoured South Sudanese tradition, young people do respect the opinion of their elders regardless to the impact that opinion has on them. More so, African younger people do not even use abusive language in their response to what the elders say about them; good or bad. Rather, the youths do confront elderly people with facts.

It is in this light that I am going to confront Uncle Bona Malwal with historical facts that he may have knowingly or unknowingly disregarded. I will first start my response with historical facts which surrounded the transfer of the Ngok Dinka Nine Chiefdoms; which Uncle Bona stated; it was done through a request by the Ngok Dinka traditional leadership. Please bear with me as I delve into discussing these historical facts.

HISTORICAL FACTORS FOR THE TRANSFER OF NGOK DINKA FROM BAHR AL-GHAZAL TO KORDOFAN

Following the crushing defeat of Mahdi's successor Khalifa Abdullahi, one of the former Mahdist insurgents, Ali Jula who had been fighting alongside the Mahdist dervishes went back to the Misseriya land and usurped power from Sheikh Azoza who had been at peace with Southern neighbours.
Despite the ban on slave trade by the Anglo-Egyptian authorities, Sheikh Ali Jula embarked on large-scale slave trafficking on the Dinka tribes in Bahr al Ghazal in general and on the Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms in particular. However, it took a long time before the reports of the continuation of the slave trafficking came to the notice of Khartoum authorities to decide on what to do about the violation of the slave trafficking ban.

The first incident which would contribute to the subsequent transfer of the Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms from Bahr al Ghazal in South Sudan to Kordofan in North Sudan reportedly, came to the notice of the Khartoum authorities when the Ngok Dinka Chief, Arop Biong, sent two runners to the British Commissioner at Fashoda aka Tauffikia on the White Nile.

Reportedly, Sultan Arop Biong's runners arrived at Kodok on 13th of September 1903 and told the District authorities that some Humour Arab tribesmen under Mohamed Khada had raided Ngok Dinka villages about a month earlier. The runners disclosed to the authorities that, the Arab raiders had killed two people, carried thirty others into captivity and took one thousand herds of cattle along with them. With an order from Khartoum, the Governor of Kordofan Province investigated the matter. He recovered the thirty men and all the looted cattle were given back to their rightful owners.

The second incident that would force the authorities in Khartoum to intervene immediately took place in January 1904. Reportedly the Misseriya Arabs, under the command of Sheikh Ali Jula of the Misseriya had raided the Twic Dinka country; uncle Bona Malwal home area, looted a number of cattle and took along with them a number of young men and women into captivity.
The Twic spiritual leader, Deng Cyier aka Deng Thiapduok, sent his innovative nephew, Sheik Rehan Gorkuei, as an envoy to find out the whereabouts of the new British authorities. He would thereafter accused Ali Jula of the Misseriya for violating the slave trafficking ban imposed by the new Khartoum authorities.

Accordingly, Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei could not go to Aweil, Gogrial or Tonj, where he could present his complaint to the authorities; because those towns were not yet established. Sheikh Rehan Gorkwei, could not go even to Bentiu because that town was not yet established. Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei could only go to Kodok which was the only spot from where reports about the security situation from southern provinces could reach the new authorities in Khartoum.
Thus after a journey of twenty-three days on foot, the Twic leader Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei arrived in Kodok in March 1905, and presented his complaints to the British District Commissioner. In the meeting Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei accused the Misseriya Chief Ali Jula for defying the British ban on slave trade; adding, Ali Jula of the Misseriya Arabs had raided his country in January and had looted thousands heads of cattle.

The Twic envoy told the Kodok authorities that, the Arab Misseriya raiders took fifteen young men along with them into captivity. The District Commissioner of Kodok, took Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei to Khartoum where he met the Governor General, Sir Reginald Wingate who, accordingly, ordered the acting Governor of Wau, Mr Sweeny to report to Khartoum immediately.

On arrival in Khartoum, the Governor General Wingate queried Mr Sweeny why he could not protect the people at the northern frontier of his administration. Governor Sweeny, reportedly, argued that, there were so many rivers and swamps on the way to Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei and Sultan Arop Biong areas. He added that, police forces or administrators could not easily reach those remote areas especially during rainy seasons.

Immediately the Governor General ordered the Governor of Kordofan Province, Mr Connally, where the slavers came from, to report to Khartoum immediately. On arrival Governor Connelly told the Governor General that, according to Colonel Baldyn's report, it was possible to reach Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei and Sultan Arop Biong areas from Kordofan Province.

After consulting with the two governors, the Governor General ordered that the territories that were subjected to slave raids in northern Upper Nile and Northern Bahr al Ghazal provinces be transferred to Kordofan in the North. The rationale behind the decision was that, both the slavers and slave victims should be put under one administration in Kordofan, where they could be well protected by a neutral British Governor.

Thus in March 1905, the Governor General made an administrative order to the effect that, the Ngok of Arop Biong, the Twic of Sheikh Rehan Gorkuei, Panaru of Chief Bill Kuei and Alor of Kuur Kuot Chiefdoms, were officially transferred from northern Bahr al Ghazal and northern Upper Nile respectively to Kordofan Province. Accordingly, the areas affected by the transfer to Kordofan were to remain there until such time that the administration and security were sufficiently established and functioning in the southern provinces.

Thus when law and order, local government administration and security were well established in the southern provinces, the Governor General made another administrative order to reconsider the retransfer of the areas previously transferred to Kordofan. Accordingly, the territories of the southern tribes annexed to Kordofan in 1905 were to be restored to their respective provinces in the Southern Provinces. In the year, 1929, Twic Ruweng and Panaru Chiefdoms agreed and reverted their area to their previous respective provinces. Consequently their areas were restored to Gogrial and Bentiu respectively.

As for the Ngok Dinka Chief, Kuol Arop who had replaced his father Arop Biong, he declined for his area to revert to Bahr al Ghazal for the reasons discussed here below.

SULTAN KUOL AROP AND SHEIKH NIMR ALI JULA PEACEFUL COOPERATION AGREEMENT

We are told that, before the rise of Mahdia most of the Arab tribes were domiciled in Darfur Province. Hence their cattle were using Kiir Adem to water themselves and their animals. But following the dismissal of Ali Jula and appointment of his son Nimr Ali Jula with tacit approval of Sultan Kuol Arop the Two Chiefs entered into a peaceful co-existence and cooperation Agreement. In efforts to avoid any future clash between the two neighbouring tribesmen over the pastures and water points, Misseriya and Ngok chiefs made the following agreement.

The Ngok Dinka-Misseriya mutual agreement allowed the Misseriya cattlemen to traverse the Ngok Dinka area annually, beginning from the start of the dry season (January) without hindrance. The Ngok Dinka cattlemen would also traverse the part of Misseriya Qooz i.e. (dry land) whenever there was flooding in the Ngok Dinka area. Remarkably, since Kuol Arop signed a detente, with his Misseriya counterpart Nimr Ali Jula (1910) the Misseriya cattle herders, as a tradition, spent the months of June, July, August and September around Muglad and Babanusa areas, where they do some cultivation during the rainy season. When the water and pastures become scanty, the Misseriya and their cattle moved annually to the Qooz, a vast waterless landmass between the Misseriya region and the Ngok Dinka country in the South.

In January, when the Ngok Dinka cattle herders would have moved away from the Ngol/Ngaol area in the north, to the central Ngok Dinka land, often after the second harvest (Anguol), the Misseriya would replace them there. In February, when the Ngok Dinka cattle had moved to the pasture land, south of the river Kiir, the Misseriya would move to the central Ngok Dinka land. By February when the Twic cattlemen have moved to Apuk area in eastern Gogrial (Toiny Apuk), the Ngok Dinka cattlemen would move to Twic area.

At the beginning of the next rainy season in April, the Twic cattle herders would move back to Twic area when the rains would fall. The Ngok Dinka would have moved back to their Toich, south of Kiir River where they would stay until the rains fall in May.

By this time, the Misseriya would have started moving away from central Ngok Dinka to Ngol area in anticipation of their northward journey to their homeland starting from June. By June the Ngok Dinka people would divide themselves, with milking cows remaining in the permanent homesteads, while the young men move to Ngol area where they would remain there until the next winter season begins. That important smooth rotational arrangement by two great tribal leaders, who wanted peaceful co-existence between their people, remained effectively in force until it was impacted by the Misseriya Dinka conflict of 1965.

The third important historical fact I would like to inform Sudanese on both sides of the two republics is that the Twic Dinka of Ajak Kuac, was carved out from Ngok Dinka land aka Abyei area and annexed to Twic Chiefdoms by the British authorities in response to Uncle Bona Malual father Sultan Madut Ring request for reasons beyond this narrative.

The fourth historical fact to add is that, during the last general elections (2010), the Ngok Dinka of Abyei and Ajack Kuac (Uncle Bona Home area; were put in one constituency. Reportedly through the tacit connivance of Uncle Bona Malwal, the Twic of Ajak Kuac people refused to register as voters in the combined Ngok-Ajak Kuac constituency. Hence they could not vote in the combined constituency during the said elections. They could not even nominate a candidate to contest in the 2010 elections. Thus when I was nominated by my people to contest and as there was no candidate that contested against me from Ajak Kuac, I was declared unopposed.
As a member of the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, I represent the combined constituency of Abyei Area and Ajack Kuac area. The above are sufficient enough for the people of the South Sudan and the Ngok Dinka to understand whether Uncle Bona Malwal statement in Khartoum were historical facts or random statement to satisfy his audience.

The fifth and final fact is that Uncle Bona Malwal called those who say that Abyei area is a part of the Republic of South Sudan, instead of the Republic of Sudan as inexperienced and irresponsible and I quote. ‘'But these are the facts, legal and constitutional facts which the inexperienced and irresponsible boys don't see''. At this juncture, I would appeal to Uncle Bona Malwal to apologise to his people the Ngok Dinka or make a counter statement and withdraw his unfortunate statement he made before his respectful audience in Khartoum.
Because of not all those who say Abyei is a part of the South Sudan are inexperienced and irresponsible. I do not even believe that Uncle Bona Malwal called all the Ngok leaders inexperienced and irresponsible because; it is a known fact, even to Uncle Bona Malwal himself, that the Ngok Atungdiak has the best experienced and responsible people who have undeniably contributed effectively for the liberation of South Sudan. Unless there is something dangerously pushing uncle Bona from behind; not to believe the facts that, the people of Ngok Atungdiak have throughout history offered South Sudan political, military and social leadership.

Sixthly, Uncle Bona Malwal is quite aware of the sensitivity of the Ngok area pedicamengt; as it is a matter of live or die. As a seasoned journalist uncle Bona Malwal should have used the journalistic jargon of ‘'non-committant'' because the fate of Abyei is in the hands of the two presidents.
Furthermore, uncle Bona Malwal statement would have been taken positively if he were to tell his audience that since Abyei is still a part of Sudan until the time of the referendum as he put it, he should have appealed to the Khartoum authorities to send services to the Ngok area or at least allow foreign NGOs to extend services to the Ngok people who have been living in squalid condition since the invasion of the area by the Sudanese Army in 2011. If Uncle Bona Malwal had secured food security and medical services for the Ngok people he would have done a wonderful job as these services would find themselves in uncle Bona Malwal area.
Another important fact I would like to tell Uncle Bona Malwal is that the Abyei Conference in which was aimed at reverting the Nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms by the outgoing British authorities was held in April 1951 and not in 1952 as mentioned in Uncle Bona Malwal recent book.
In the 1951 conference, which was attended by prominent paramount chiefs from Gogrial and Aweil including Uncle Bona Father Madut Ring, no decision was made. Rather, Chief Deng Majok asked the conference to defer the issue to some later date; adding that the Ngok Chiefs should be allowed to undertake a fact-finding guided tour to Bahr al-Ghazal to acquaint themselves with the nature of the native administration there. Upon their return, the Chiefs were expected to make their decision on the subject under scrutiny. In 1952, Mr Richard Owen the Governor of Bahr al-Ghazal sent a convoy of cars and the Ngok Chiefs were taken on a guided tour to native court centres in Bahr al-Ghazal Province. The next conference in which a decision would have been made, probably in 1953, was overtaken by events of Sudanisation. Consequently, no conference was ever held again. The rot had set in.

In conclusion I would like to suggest that if uncle Bona Malwal has some axe to grind against the Ngok Dinka leadership, the best thing he should do, as an acclaimed seasoned politician who is too informed to be informed; is to reconcile with the Ngok Atungdaik leadership through our time honoured African traditional mechanism; instead of distortion of historical facts and the use of abusive language against those leaders who rightly say that their area is by right, a part and parcel of the Republic of South Sudan.

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