September 20, 2006, Juba – Sixteen traditional leaders, representing various ethnic groups from different parts of Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, who have been on a familiarisation tour of three African countries, have returned home determined to play a more reconciliatory role among their communities. The leaders, who included kings, paramount chiefs and chiefs, made an impassioned call for an end to hostilities between rival communities in the Sudan. Their tour of South Africa, Botswana and Ghana began on 14 August and ended on 4 September.

In response to the Kamuto Declaration (2004) signed in Kapoeta County, UNDP and the Swiss Government sponsored the traditional leaders' visits to the three countries. The leaders noted that the traditional systems in some of the countries they visited had been highly modernised. This was critical in providing key lessons for the Sudanese traditional leadership structures which are just emerging from a long conflict.

The study tour was intended to expose the chiefs to how traditional systems in different countries visited were involved in promoting good governance and the administration of justice, including sectoral and cross-sectoral policies designed at the federal levels of those governments. In addition, the trip was meant to help forge unity among the leaders and to share experiences on the challenges facing them. This, it is hoped, will help to enhance the traditional methods of conflict management.

The Sudanese leaders visited, among others, the national house of chiefs in the South African capital, Pretoria, where they met with local government officials, leaders of the national house of traditional leaders and His Majesty the king of the Ndebele. They also visited Durban, where they met with the His Majesty the king of the Zulu.
In Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, they visited the house of chiefs and met with paramount Kgosis (Chiefs), including Kgosi Mosadi.

In Accra, Ghana, the leaders were received by His Excellency the Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs, the President of the National House of Chiefs and other members from the National House. They later visited the ancient Ashanti city of Kumasi, meeting along the way Paramount Chief of Akuapem.

And in Kumasi, they paid a courtesy visit to the ancient Royal Court of the Ashantehene and the Ashantehene Museum.
Back home, they vowed to establish a forum for traditional leaders, promising to hold meetings in their respective communities to continue preaching the message of peace among their people. And to enhance the efficiency of traditional authorities in governance and administration of justice, they have also appealed to UNDP and partners to assist them in establishing a forum of traditional leaders of southern Sudan