Juba — Lou Nuer Elder Hoth Gorluak called for peaceful co-existence between Jonglei communities in order for the State to receive development and blamed that the fighting has undermined development in the areas, since government, businesses and investors fear to extend their operations there.Hoth who was addressing the Citizen yesterday said the fighting between Lou Nuer and Murle according to local history began a long time ago, around 1942 when the Murle launched the first cattle raids in the Lou Nuer land and that has since then become a cycle of cattle rustling between them.

"We Lou Nuer are not involved in Murle raids but records show that they raid all communities of great Upper Nile region including the areas of Ethiopia since time immemorial and therefore we have the government of South Sudan to address this issue now and end it completely," Gorluak added. "We are peace loving people and those who said that Lou Nuer are warmongers should know that this is not true because Lou Nuer didn't encourage cattle rustling and child abduction.

Unfortunately the Murle entertains this practice of child abduction and cattle rustling so much, therefore peace can only be achieved if government creates a buffer zone with strong police and army units between us," he added. He urges the Lou Nuer youth to completely withdraw from the Murle land and to stop confronting with the government forces and respect the government installations as loyal citizens. "We were fed up with Murle activities in our land but not the government, and therefore any solution to the problem between us proposed by the government of South Sudan is highly welcomed in addition to returning of our abducted children," said Gorluak.

He said Luo-Nuer people do not encourage abduction of other people's children because God who created human beings has given each of them the responsibility of raising children and bringing them up into adulthood and therefore for the Luo-Nuer it looks abnormal to abduct other people's children. Gorluak called on the government to disarm all communities in the Jonglei State and to start deploying police which will provide protection to the civilians across the counties.