JUBA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan said Friday it has established a working committee with its neighbor Uganda to settle ongoing tension between border communities that have in the past dragged in the military from both countries.
Mawien Makol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, said they were working to solve the misunderstanding between the Acholi community in South Sudan's Magwi area of Torit State and the Acholi community of Lamwo in northern Uganda over land that has turned into territorial conflict.
"It has been communal disagreement among the communities on both sides over land. There was an encroachment on the side of South Sudan. The two countries have set up committee to solve that," Makol said in Juba.
This came after local leaders in the Lamwo district of Uganda on April 29 accused the South Sudan army (SPLA) of blocking road engineers working on the Lamwo road connecting to South Sudan's Eastern Magwi County.
In August 2015, more than 200 gunmen from South Sudan's Magwi County entered into Uganda and were later flashed out by the Ugandan army (UPDF).
The two countries are yet to resolve the land dispute in the Moyo area of Uganda, bordering KajoKeji area of South Sudan with especially the Gbari area being contested by both the Madi and Kuku ethnic groups.
The outbreak of conflict has compromised South Sudan's security along its porous border points as millions of refugees have fled into neighboring Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and DR Congo.
South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to split within the SPLA, leaving soldiers to fight alongside ethnic lines.
The 2015 peace agreement to end the conflict was weakened after the outbreak of renewed fighting in July 2016.
