Double murder of South Sudanese Australian boys reignites debate on youth gang violence in Melbourne

On a Saturday evening last spring, two boys stepped off a bus in Melbourne’s outer west just before 8pm. They never made it home.

The alleged double murder of the two children – 12-year-old Chol Achiek and his friend 15-year-old Dau Akueng – reignited a fierce debate over solutions to curb Victoria’s youth gang violence.

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.

Victoria police charged the teenagers, aged between 15 and 19, with the murders of Dau and Chol the same month the pair were killed – there is no suggestion those charged are of South Sudanese background. The matter remains before the court.

At the time of the deaths the then Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, said solutions to fight against violent crime “must come from the community”. Offering her condolences to the boys’ families, Allan said she would convene a meeting of the government’s South Sudanese Australian Youth Justice Expert Working Group (SSAYJEWG) to hear solutions “first-hand”.

But a year on from their deaths the government is yet to release a report by the group – delivered more than eight months ago – which includes recommendations to improve community safety and reduce the over-representation of South Sudanese Australians in the youth justice system.

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.

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.

Dau’s father, Elbino Akueng, says a year on from the deaths, the South Sudanese Australian and Cobblebank communities are “struggling a lot”.

“It’s not just our family … it’s the entire community,” he says.

“There’s fear for [the] South Sudanese community.”

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.

The working group was established in 2022 to help reduce the over-representation of South Sudanese Australian young people in Victoria’s 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 – comprised of South Sudanese Australian leaders – as part of the solution to reducing street violence.

After the Cobblebank attack, the working group said its final report would provide the government with “systemic recommendations to create long-term positive change”.

“Preventing further tragedy requires us all to work together, such as families, elders, young people, service providers, community organisations, government and Victoria Police,” a statement from the group’s chair, Dr Santino Deng, and the deputy chair, Meena Singh, said.

“It is only through unity and collaboration that we can address the drivers of disadvantage and build pathways to safety, opportunity and success.”

In January, Deng posted on LinkedIn saying the group’s final report had been handed to the then youth justice minister, Enver Erdogan. Under new premier Ben Carroll’s cabinet reshuffle last month, Ros Spence now holds the portfolio.

A South Sudanese community leader, who requested anonymity to discuss the expert working group’s report, says there has been a “lot of work that has been put into this”.

“This is probably the most engagement we’ve ever had with the government,” the leader says.

“We 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.”

The leader says any allocated funding from the report’s recommendations should be provided to South Sudanese Australian community organisations to ensure they are involved in the reform’s implementation.

“If 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].”

A spokesperson for the Victorian government said its thoughts remain with Chol and Dau’s family, who were grieving after a tragedy that “should never have happened”.

“We stand with the community in their fight against youth gang crime. It’s why we are working with the South Sudanese Australian Youth Justice Expert Working Group to bring together local solutions,” the spokesperson said.

“We will continue to listen to the community, experts and Victoria police to understand what more can be done.”

The spokesperson did not respond to a question from Guardian Australia about what date the report would be published.

Brad Battin, the opposition’s spokesperson for police and corrections, said the premier – who has nominated tackling the root causes of crime as a top priority – had the ability to release the SSAYJEWG report as soon as possible.

“Waiting 12 months to see action to keep the community safe just sends more fear through the local community that they’re not being listened to,” he said.

Battin said the Coalition had committed $100m in crime prevention, to ensure that “we can get the programs that work out into these communities as fast as possible.”

The attacks on Dau and Chol occurred days after the state government’s 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.

Last year, the government introduced tougher bail laws, adult time for violent crime” laws and created the violence reduction unit to respond to the “changed pattern of behaviour” by youth offenders.