Lawmaker urges youth leaders to be peace ambassadors in Mayom County
Stephen Bol Ley, Member of parliament in the Transitional National Legislative Assembly addressing the Bul Youth on Saturday [Photo: Matik Kueth, The City Review]
A lawmaker representing Mayom County in the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA), Stephen Bol Ley, appealed to Bul Youth Union leaders to preach peace in Mayom County.
Ley, who spoke in Juba on Saturday during the Bul Youth Union campaign rally to elect new leaders of the executive, challenged the intellectuals to sensitise the armed youth in Mayom County against participating in conflicts in other states.
He urged the aspiring youth leaders to hold dialogue on peace and reconciliation in Mayom, adding that it is the only way to make the armed youth reconcile and settle their disputes.
“You need to play a role in making reconciliation among the youth in Mayom to avoid rampant conflicts in the county and the neighbouring counties. If there is someone who got annoyed because he thinks he was mistreated like Gai Machiek, organise a group, go to that person, and advise him to come back home,” Ley said.
He noted that it is one of the reasons Bul Nuer armed youth perished in Abyei in recent months due to involvement in conflicts that they are not supposed to take part in.
“Let me give you an example, on January 27, 2024, our youth who were displaced by flood fought with the armed youth in Abyei. And the fighting resulted in the killing of 53 armed youths from Mayom County, and these are armed youths who used to fight alongside them against the Twic Dinka. And it is Nuer’s culture that when someone wants to hurt somebody with whom you stay together, it is better you die together,” he said.
Ley said that historical facts reveal that engaging in such clashes normally prove counterproductive, drawing an example of a community in Lakes State that was assisted by their colleagues from another state, and after they won against the British, they turned against one another.
The lawmaker said his intention of bringing up the history was to enable the youth leaders to understand that the Bul Nuer armed youth divided themselves into groups, one fighting alongside the Ngok Dinka, and the other with Gai Machiek backing up Twic Dinka.
“When they were assisted by the Nuer to fight the British so that they could have freedom in their land, they had a meeting and said, When you see a white man, you kill him. And when you see a Nuer man, you also kill him. And these are the people who helped them. Why am I telling you this story, it is because of what happened in Abyei. Our youth have divided themselves. Gai Machiek is having his group help Twic Dinka fight the Ngok Dinka, while the other group is fighting alongside the Ngok Dinka,” he emphasised.
He added, “I am telling you all these things not because I am preaching tribalism. These are facts that cannot be disputed. We are working hard to bring Gai Machiek back to Mayom County,” he added.
However, the leadership of Twic County in Warrap State recently disputed the allegations that Gai Machiek was involved in the clashes between the area youth and their colleagues from Abyei.
