South Sudan: meeting over kidnapped women and children

Leaders of the Murle ethnic group in South Sudan have demanded that two neighbouring communities: the Dinka Bor and the Lou Nuer, urgently release nearly 1,000 women and children they accuse them of abducting recently.

They made the demand during an ongoing peace conference taking place in the capital, Juba.

“They took 442 women and 552 children… so we ask them to return those children and women back,” Joseph Lilimoy, a delegate from Murle community, told the BBC.

The three communities have been engaging in inter-communal conflict for years, which often results in the killing of thousands and the abduction of women and children.

A three-day conference under the theme “together for peace, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence” is being hosted by the presidency to address the security situation in Jonglei state and the Greater Pibor administrative area.

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Mr Lilimoy pledged that his community would return the children who were abducted by the Murle youth from Greater Equatorial region. But he did not mention how many they were.

Meanwhile, the Dinka Bor community recommended that perpetrators of child abductions should be sentenced to death.

With BBC