Mar 2, 2021(Nyamilepedia) — The Ngok Dinka and Misseriya communities concluded a five-day peace conference where they agreed on the issues affecting them but failed to agree on the name of the peace agreement.
According to the Paramount Chief of the Ngok Dinka Bulabek Deng Kuol, the delegates disagreed on how to name the peace agreement document which led to the communities refusing to sign the document.
“The presentation became a problem because we have reached disagreement over the name; because they insisted on the name of Misseriya. And the Massiriya has so many clans and is unlimited. There are Misseriya in Darfur, in South Kordofan and in Western Kordofan,’’ said Deng Kuol.
“The Misseriya-Ajaira are the ones who come to our areas and we meant to start peace with them because we have relations with them and that why we need to separate them from the whole Misseriya,” he added.
The Paramount Chief of Misseriya-Ajaira, Al-Jak Suileman confirmed that the disagreement was based on the name.
“Of course, the five-day conference allowed us to agree on many points. Unfortunately, the agreement was based on the name. The conference itself was called ‘Peaceful coexistence conference between Misseriya and Ngok Dinka’ but our brother Dinka Ngok refused Misseriya,’’ Suleiman said.
He added that the document has been changed on several occasions of which they had accepted but refused the final name.
“From there it was changed as Abyei Peace Conference and we have also accepted that. They want to change the name from Misseriya to Ajaira and this is a fourth conference to bring deadlock.” He said
“So, I want to confirm that we have agreed on all points we discussed except the name. The mediators proposed to adjourn this conference so that people come again to address issues in the name. The Ngok Dinka have welcomed the proposal but we reject it,” he added.
Northern Bahr el Ghazal’s peace and reconciliation commissioner, William Kolong Poth said the conference passed most resolutions except for the agreement’s name.
“The five-day discussion went well. It was a bit tough, the two communities agreed not to mention the issues to do with politics, the issue to do with lands and they wanted to focus on peaceful coexistence.” Kolong said.
“Most of those resolutions were passed. One of the tough resolutions we have left and the two of them have to go back is the issue of the name. The Ngok Dinka wanted to call Miseriya as Misseriya-Ajaira,’’ said William.
The mediators and guarantors have rescheduled the talks to take place in two months to iron the outstanding issue.
