On a Saturday evening last spring, two boys stepped off a bus in Melbourne\u2019s outer west just before 8pm. They never made it home.<\/p>\n
The alleged double murder of the two children \u2013 12-year-old Chol Achiek and his friend 15-year-old Dau Akueng \u2013 reignited a fierce debate over solutions to curb Victoria\u2019s youth gang violence.<\/p>\n
The South Sudanese Australian boys were on their way home after a local basketball tournament when they were allegedly ambushed by a group of eight teenagers wielding machetes and knives on 6 September last year.<\/p>\n
Victoria police charged the teenagers, aged between 15 and 19, with the murders of Dau and Chol the same month the pair were killed \u2013 there is no suggestion those charged are of South Sudanese background. The matter remains before the court.<\/p>\n
At the time of the deaths the then Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, said solutions to fight against violent crime \u201cmust come from the community\u201d<\/a>. Offering her condolences to the boys\u2019 families, Allan said she would convene a meeting of the government\u2019s South Sudanese Australian Youth Justice Expert Working Group (SSAYJEWG) to hear solutions \u201cfirst-hand\u201d.<\/p>\n But a year on from their deaths the government is yet to release a report by the group \u2013 delivered more than eight months ago \u2013 which includes recommendations to improve community safety and reduce the over-representation of South Sudanese Australians in the youth justice system.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n Guardian Australia understands the working group considered making a number of recommendations as part of its final report, including calling for Victoria police and other agencies to crack down on organised crime figures grooming African Australian children, and for the police force to publicly report stop and search data.<\/p>\n Dau Akueng, 15.<\/p>\n Other possible recommendations included pushing the Victorian government to increase early intervention programs in primary school, commission research on media reporting on young African Australians and work with the federal government to remove barriers faced by South Sudanese Australians in obtaining citizenship and accurate identification.<\/p>\n Dau\u2019s father, Elbino Akueng, says a year on from the deaths, the South Sudanese Australian and Cobblebank communities are \u201cstruggling a lot\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just our family \u2026 it\u2019s the entire community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s fear for [the] South Sudanese community.\u201d<\/p>\n Akueng says he now drops off his two daughters, aged 8 and 12, at school because he does not want them walking the local streets alone. The pair used to walk to school with their older brother, Dau.<\/p>\n The working group was established in 2022<\/a> to help reduce the over-representation of South Sudanese Australian young people in Victoria\u2019s youth justice system. While there is no suggestion Chol or Dau had interacted with the youth justice system, Allan last year pointed to the group \u2013 comprised of South Sudanese Australian leaders \u2013 as part of the solution to reducing street violence.<\/p>\n After the Cobblebank attack, the working group said its final report would provide the government with \u201csystemic recommendations to create long-term positive change\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPreventing further tragedy requires us all to work together, such as families, elders, young people, service providers, community organisations, government and Victoria Police,\u201d a statement <\/a>from the group\u2019s chair, Dr Santino Deng, and the deputy chair, Meena Singh, said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is only through unity and collaboration that we can address the drivers of disadvantage and build pathways to safety, opportunity and success.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, Deng posted on LinkedIn saying the group\u2019s final report had been handed to the then youth justice minister, Enver Erdogan. Under new premier Ben Carroll\u2019s cabinet reshuffle last month, Ros Spence now holds the portfolio.<\/p>\n Chol Achiek, 12.<\/p>\n A South Sudanese community leader, who requested anonymity to discuss the expert working group\u2019s report, says there has been a \u201clot of work that has been put into this\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is probably the most engagement we\u2019ve ever had with the government,\u201d the leader says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just want to make sure that the government and community can continue to maintain the level of engagement that they have for the last few years and for the future as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The leader says any allocated funding from the report\u2019s recommendations should be provided to South Sudanese Australian community organisations to ensure they are involved in the reform\u2019s implementation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the government properly funds the recommendations of the expert working group I do believe that there can be a lot of work to prevent no further instances and help to stop our community being victims [of youth crime].\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Victorian government said its thoughts remain with Chol and Dau\u2019s family, who were grieving after a tragedy that \u201cshould never have happened\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cWe stand with the community in their fight against youth gang crime. It\u2019s why we are working with the South Sudanese Australian Youth Justice Expert Working Group to bring together local solutions,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to listen to the community, experts and Victoria police to understand what more can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson did not respond to a question from Guardian Australia about what date the report would be published.<\/p>\n Brad Battin, the opposition\u2019s spokesperson for police and corrections, said the premier \u2013 who has nominated tackling the root causes of crime<\/a> as a top priority \u2013 had the ability to release the SSAYJEWG report as soon as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cWaiting 12 months to see action to keep the community safe just sends more fear through the local community that they\u2019re not being listened to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Battin said the Coalition had committed $100m in crime prevention, to ensure that \u201cwe can get the programs that work out into these communities as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The attacks on Dau and Chol occurred days after the state government\u2019s machete ban amnesty came into effect, with members of the public urged to dispose of the long-bladed weapons in special amnesty bins installed at police stations across the state.<\/p>\n Last year, the government introduced tougher bail laws<\/a>, adult time for violent crime\u201d laws<\/a> and created the violence reduction unit<\/a> to respond to the \u201cchanged pattern of behaviour\u201d by youth offenders.<\/p>\n