Girls at Malual Agai School in South Sudan are having a lesson about menstrual hygiene. The school is one of the beneficiaries from Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) funded by Education Cannot Wait (ECW). The fund aims to keep girls at school by supporting them and providing them with dignity kits. Credit: ECW

By Charlton Doki
Juba, South Sudan, Nov 10 2021 (IPS)

Ayom Wol sits under a tree in South Sudan in the scorching midday sun. He is a newly-trained teacher, preparing for tomorrow’s lessons. His school principal says he has to prepare while at school because there is no electricity at home.

The 29-year-old Wol teaches English and Science in Mitor Primary School in Gogrial West County of Warrap state. The school is among hundreds benefiting from a Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) funded by Education Cannot Wait (ECW).

Wol is among the teachers who have received teacher training with ECW funding, and the training has greatly improved his skills and capacity to prepare lesson plans and teaching materials.

Education Cannot Wait is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. In January 2020, it launched the MYRP in collaboration with the South Sudan government and local and international aid and development agencies. The MYRP programme focuses on building resilience within education in South Sudan.

ECW director Yasmine Sherif. Credit: ECW

“With one of the lowest school enrolment rates in the world, children and adolescents in South Sudan continue to bear the heavy burden of the years of conflict that ravaged their country. Girls are disproportionally affected. They represent three-quarters of the out of school children in primary education, and it is even worse at the secondary level,” says Yasmine Sherif, the Director of Education Cannot Wait.

“Together with our partners in the government, communities, civil society and the UN, Education Cannot Wait’s investment in safe, inclusive quality education for the most marginalised children and adolescents in the country can finally turn the tide for the next generation of South Sudanese to thrive and become positive changemakers for their young nation.

The MYRP provides an opportunity for children to access education in six of South Sudan’s ten states: Jonglei, Upper Nile, Unity, Eastern Equatoria, Lakes and Warrap. ECW allocated US$30 million as seed funding to support the three-year MYRP, which targets children in 355 schools and learning centres across the six states. These learning centres include 69 early childhood development centres, 213 primary schools, 21 secondary schools and 52 alternative education system centres, both for ‘Accelerated Education Programmes’ and ‘Pastoralist Education Programmes’.

Out of 117,256 beneficiaries reached by the MYRP during the first year of implementation, 46,010 are girls, and 1,647 are children with disabilities.

A Back-to-School campaign in Riwoto primary school, Kapoeta North County. The school is supported by ECW is working to ensure that all children, including those with disabilities, are able to attend school. Credit: ECW

Even though he has taught for nine years, Wol says, he became a better teacher after attending training supported through the MYRP.

“I now know how to prepare a lesson plan and a scheme of work for any subject,” Wol says. “I have also learned from the training how to support children who are living with disabilities.”

Joseph Mogga, the Education Programme Manager for Christian Mission for Development in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, says the MYRP helps train teachers on how to handle inclusion, especially of children with disabilities, amongst other issues.

“We are going to train teachers on how they can teach in an inclusive setting. Here in South Sudan, vulnerability is more pronounced when the child with a disability is a girl,” he says, adding that this project supports an inclusive and safe learning environment for all girls and boys, including those with disabilities.

The Director-General for Gender Equity and Inclusive Education in the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, Esther Akumu Achire, says that some cultures and traditions in South Sudan deprive girls of their right to education, promoting harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage.

“This is very common among our people, and these are among the cultural barriers we are trying to change.”

Malual Agurpiny Primary School flooded. ECW is at the forefront of ensuring that children benefit from quality education even in crises. Credit: ECW

Long distances to schools and climate-change-induced floods also disrupt education.

“The long distances to get to school scares some parents from sending their children to school because they feel that the schools are too far, and there is conflict and insecurity. Sometimes, you hear about rape which scares the parents for their children.”

Achire says about 2.8 million children remain out of school. She is grateful for the MYRP initiative supporting the education sector in South Sudan.

“The MYRP is doing a good job. We have realised that the girls and the children with disabilities are taken care of. We are now trying to ensure that the girls, even young mothers, are now back to school and that they are learning well.”

Adolescent girls are given dignity kits, and children with disabilities are provided for. “Children with disabilities are given some assistive devices which help them continue learning,” Achire says. “In fact, with awareness-raising on children with disabilities and the importance of girls coming to school, the enrolment is going up.”
A critical aspect of the programme is the teacher training component.

“We could have the girls in schools, but if the teachers are not there or if they do not know how to teach, it becomes a problem. But with the MYRP, teacher training is being conducted,” she says, adding that the training also focuses on reducing gender-based violence.

ECW staff are hard at work despite the flooding to ensure the schools are functional. Credit: ECW

Ayuen Awien, a primary seven pupil at Keen Primary School in Gogrial West County, Warrap state, attests to the benefits of being involved in the ECW programme.

Early and forced marriages are common in her community, so she is considered vulnerable and eligible for support. Awien says the school environment offers her safety.

“I feel secure here because our teachers are against early and forced marriages,” says Awien. “I would probably have been forced to get married if I was not in school.”

Awien says she has received books, dignity kits, playing and learning materials and is quite comfortable in school. In the future, Awien says, she wants to be a doctor.

“I encourage other girls who are at home to enrol and stay in school. If you study, you will have a better life in future, and you will be able to help your parents as well,” she says.

The MYRP programme has distributed 1.2 million textbooks to all targeted counties to facilitate learning for all children targeted by the programme.

According to Mogga, the MYRP is probably the only programme highlighting the plight of children with disabilities.

“In Duk County, wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids are distributed. Eyeglasses for children who need them so that they can attend classes and be able to see what’s written on the blackboard easily were also donated,” says Mogga.

The MYRP implementing partners are now looking at school infrastructure to assess whether the facilities are accessible to physically challenged learners.

Schools are often in inaccessible areas, but nevertheless, ECW staff ensure that the children get the provisions they need. Credit: ECW

Mogga explains that disruptions to children’s education include conflict, floods, loss of family members and traditional practices such as early marriage. Boys are also expected to look after the cattle when they are supposed to be at school.

“For boys and girls who have been out of school, there was no glimpse of hope,” Mogga says, adding that the ECW-supported programme is a “timely intervention in favour of promoting access to education for out-of-school children.”

To help ensure that girls enrol and stay in school, the MYRP addresses the challenges that force girls and young mothers to drop out.

Programme implementers say the support protects the girls from sexual abuse and exploitation, including sexual exploitation – trading sex to earn money to pay for school fees and meet other basic needs.

“This support also protects girls from early marriages. If a girl is supported with this scholarship, they are happy, and it prevents the risk of early marriage because once they are out of school, the next option is getting married. But by keeping them in school with a scholarship and money offered to them and providing them with basic items like school uniform it prevents them from getting married early,” says Alberto Maker, an education project manager at UNKEA, one of the agencies implementing the MYRP in Gogrial County of South Sudan’s Warrap state.

Implementers of the MYRP stress that several challenges hamper boys’ and girls’ access to safe, inclusive quality education – including climate-impact disasters like floods.

Jacob Masanso, Education Consortium Manager of the MYRP, says recent unprecedented flooding destroyed classrooms in 340 schools across the country, thus exacerbating the shortage of school infrastructure and resulting in health risks.

“Flooding also makes access to target schools and communities hard. For example, some roads are impassable, causing delays in the implementation of certain interventions,” added Masanso.

ECW assisted with COVID-19 preventative equipment so schools could reopen. Credit: ECW

The MYRP also supported school reopening in the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the safety of children and teachers.

“We provided handwashing facilities and COVID-19 preventive materials when schools reopened officially on 3 May 2021. The MYRP implementing partners worked closely with the Ministry of General Education and Instruction and other stakeholders focused on supporting safe school reopening, community mobilisation and engagement,” says Grazia Paoleri, the MYRP Secretariat Coordinator.

“We did this to ensure that both children previously out-of-school prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 and closure of schools and those who were in-school before COVID-19 return to school and learn.”

Paoleri said the funding gap for the MYRP in South Sudan is estimated to be nearly US$190 million by 2022. The Ministry of General Education and Instruction, together with education partners, have developed a funding strategy that guides resource mobilisation efforts for closing this gap to ensure continued access to quality learning opportunities for girls and boys in the country.

• The ECW-supported Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) in South Sudan is managed by a consortium of Save the Children, Finn Church Aid and Norwegian Refugee Council together with 17 implementing partners, including Christian Mission for Development (CMD), AVSI, SPEDP, Nile Hope, Food for the Hungry, SAADO, Oxfam, Plan International, CEF, Windle Trust, CINA, HESS, World Vision, Mercy Corps, UNIDOR, UNKEA, PCO.

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Displaced women flee fighting by boat to Mingkaman, Awerial County, Lakes State, South Sudan.. Only one out of 10 HIV positive mothers can get the drugs needed to avoid infecting her baby. Credit: Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Nov 14 2014 (IPS)

Dressed in a flowered African print kitenge and a blue head scarf, Sabur Samson, 27, sits pensively at the HIV centre at Maridi Civil Hospital in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state. 

Today she paid 20 South Sudanese pounds (about six dollars) for a bodaboda (motorbike taxi) ride to the centre and will have to skimp on food in the next days.

She will be hungry and few will help her in the village, although she is blind and a single mother of two children.

“Many people fear to come close because they fear they will contract HIV,” she told IPS.

Seated next to her, Khamis Mongo, 32, has lived with HIV for five years now and has suffered similar rejection. “Some people don’t want to eat from the same plate with me,” he says.

Mongo and Samson are among nearly 1,000 HIV positive people receiving care at the centre, of whom 250 are in antiretroviral therapy (ART). They are lucky: in South Sudan, just one out of 10 people needing ART gets it.

The clinic sees patients coming from as far as 100 kilometres.

“So many patients are dying because they can’t afford transport to collect their medicine here,” clinical officer Suzie Luka told IPS.

A one-way, 80 km bodaboda trip from Ibba to Maridi costs 150 South Sudanese pounds (47 dollars).

The challenges in Maridi are a microcosm of those that the world’s newest country, South Sudan, faces in containing the HIV epidemic.

Newly independent from north Sudan in 2011, and emerging from Africa’s longest civil war over 21 years with one of the world’s lowest human development statistics, South Sudan plunged again into fighting in December 2013.

The national HIV prevalence rate is under three percent and rising steadily, according to the Joint United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

This translates into 150,000 people living with HIV in a country whose social fabric and physical infrastructure was destroyed by successive wars.

 “Moving corpses”

Evelyn Letio, from the South Sudan Network of People Living with HIV, describes poor access, quality and continuity of health services, underpinned by denial of the disease and high stigma and discrimination, especially against women.

“Community leaders will hurriedly accept a divorce if it’s the woman who is positive and force her to leave the man’s house,” says Letio.”If it’s the man who is positive, they won’t allow the woman to leave the house so she can take care of him.”

Despite denial by government officials, discrimination is rampant within the civil service, she adds:  “People who have disclosed to be HIV positive are laid off and called ’moving corpses’.”

Inadequate financial, infrastructural and human resources limit efforts to expand HIV services.  The national HIV plan has an 80 percent funding shortfall.

Mongo and Sanson told IPS that the Maridi clinic often runs out of drugs and they have to return days later. Other times, staff has not been paid for months and stays away.

“Treatment has been tricky,” acknowledges Habib Daffalla Awongo, director general for programme coordination at South Sudan AIDS Commission.

According to UNAIDS, just 22 centres provided ART before the new outbreak of violence.

Last December, the ART centres in Bor, Malakal and Bentiu, capitals of the states worst hit by fighting, had to close. The whereabouts of 1,140 patients are unknown. Most likely they have interrupted ART, endangering their lives.

War and AIDS

Forty thousand people living with HIV have been directly affected by the recent violence, according to the United Nations. The new fighting reversed the gains made in HIV services since independence. 

“We have lost many HIV positive people during the conflict, some died in the fighting and others migrated to peaceful areas,” said Awongo.

By U.N. counts,  the new conflict has displaced 1.9 million people.

In Juba, the capital, camps with long rows of white tents have sprung up to shelter some 31,000 displaced people.

Among them is Taban Khamis*, who escaped fighting in the key oil city of Bentiu, 1,000 kms north of Juba. He has interrupted ART and fears his health will soon worsen but he will not go to the camp’s HV clinic for fear of stigma.

“The camp is crowded and there is no privacy,” he told IPS. “Everyone will know that I have HIV.”

Prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections “dramatically increases in camps”, says a study by the HIV/AIDS Alliance.

Awongo is aware of this problem. “We encourage people to come out of the camps to facility points where they can access services but this is not making a difference,” he says.

*Name changed to protect his privacy

Edited by: Mercedes Sayagues

South Sudan’s wildlife, including elephants, are being used to feed troops on both side of conflict between government and forces loyal to former deputy president Riek Machar. Pictured here is a South African elephant. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Jun 17 2014 (IPS)

While South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar agreed last week to end the country’s devastating six-month conflict by forming a transitional government within the next two months, it may come too late for this country’s wildlife as conservation officials accuse fighters on both sides of engaging in killing wild animals to feed their forces.  

Poaching has always been a common practice in South Sudan. But conservationists say that since the conflict between the government and forces loyal to Machar began in December 2013, there has been an upsurge in the killing and trafficking of wildlife by government and anti-government forces as well as armed civilians.

“Since the start of this conflict we have noticed that poaching has become terrible. Rebels are poaching and the government forces are also poaching because they are all fighting in rural areas and the only available food they can get is wild meat,” Lieutenant General Alfred Akuch Omoli, an advisor to South Sudan’s Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, told IPS.

Officials say elephants are being killed for their meat and tusks while migratory animals that move in large numbers, especially the white-eared kob, the tiang (also known as the Senegal hartebeest) and reedbuck, are being killed specifically to provide bush meat.

“Our forces are also shooting wildlife animals for food. If you go from here between Mangala and Bor [just outside of the capital, Juba] you will see a lot of bush meat being sold along the road,” the director general for Wildlife in South Sudan, Philip Majak, told local radio.

The current conflict has also made it difficult for wildlife officers to stop both the government and rebel troops from poaching and is hindering their efforts to conduct routine patrols in national game parks and wildlife reserves.

“Wildlife officers have run away from their work stations, which means they can no longer conduct routine patrols to prevent poaching. So criminals and gangs can now easily kill animals in the bushes,” Omoli said.

“Things will only get better when peace is restored, fighters return to the barracks and the government disarms civilians carrying illegal guns,” he added.

Wildlife Conservation and Tourism Ministry officials say prior to the two-decade civil war between what was previously north and south Sudan, South Sudan had more than 100,000 elephants. But when the war ended in 2005, there were only 5,000 left.

Last year, the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which is helping conserve wildlife in South Sudan, fitted 34 elephants with GPS satellite collars.

But between January and April WCS officials established that some of the collars were no longer visible on satellite.

“We have evidence that some of the elephants we collared have been killed. When the conflict escalated we established that one of the collars was behind rebel forces’ lines in Jonglei state. That means that elephant has most probably been killed by now,” Michael Lopidia, WCS’s deputy director for South Sudan, told IPS.

The increased availability of arms remains an issue here. Before South Sudan gained independence in 2011, it was estimated that there were between 1.9 and 3.2 million small arms in circulation in the country. Two-thirds of these small arms and light weapons were thought to be in the hands of civilians, according to a February 2012 report by Safer World titled “Civilian disarmament in South Sudan: A legacy of struggle.”

But this number is thought to have doubled or tripled in the last three years due in part to the number of rebel and militia groups that have sprung up in Jonglei and Upper Nile states in 2010 and 2011. There has also been an increased supply of small arms by traders from neighbouring countries.

“There is serious poaching here in South Sudan simply because there are a lot of guns in uncontrolled hands. Civilians who own guns just go into the forests and begin poaching without permission from the ministry,” Omoli explained.

Ethnic conflict has also played a role in hampering conservation efforts. During the 2013 war in Jonglei state’s Pibor County led by David Yau Yau of the Murle community, communities and wildlife rangers from the Boma National Park were displaced. This ultimately lead to a halt in wildlife conservation activities.

“The armed conflict between Yau Yau and the SPLA [South Sudan’s army] from February to May 2013 disrupted our efforts to conserve animals. WCS lost more than 5,000 dollars worth of property. All our infrastructure, including tents, were removed and looted,” Lopidia said.

But another concerning factor is that wildlife rangers lack the capacity to deal with South Sudan’s highly militarised poachers. According to both the South Sudan Wildlife Service and WCS officials, poachers here tend to be heavily armed.

“Once we went to fix a sign post. There were seven rangers and they saw more than 10 poachers carrying G3s [automatic rifles] while the rangers were carrying AK47s [select-fire assault rifles]. We had to come back because if the rangers had approached the poachers they would have been overpowered,” Lopidia explained.

There is also currently no specific law to deal with the issues of poaching and wildlife trafficking. Though wildlife officers have arrested poachers and wildlife traffickers, because of the lack of a clear law, “sometimes in the courts ask under what section are you charging this person,” Omoli said. Most often suspected poachers are set free.

“That’s why we want to speed up the laws so that they are put in place and implemented as soon as possible,” Omoli said.

South Sudan Wildlife Service officers also do not have powers to prosecute. Arrested poachers and wildlife traffickers are often handed over to the police for prosecution.

“The problem is that when these cases are taken to police they are sometimes not tried and the cases just die out. We would prefer to try these cases. But the cases end up pending and the suspects are sometimes released and they go back to what they have been doing — poaching,” Omoli explained.

Officials say that if South Sudan’s variety of wildlife, including elephants, giraffes, buffalos, white-eared-kobs, gazelles, tiang, antelopes, mongalla gazelles, reedbuck and lions, were sustainably managed, tourism for the country’s wildlife could contribute up to 10 percent of South Sudan’s GDP in 10 years time.

“We need proper planning and policies. We should identify what natural resources we have and prepare good policies guiding how they should be used for a long time to benefit the current and future generations. There should be a national plan to do that,” Dr. Leben Nelson Moro, a professor of development studies at Juba University, told IPS.

Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism officials are working with WCS to develop a legal framework that will govern how wildlife offences or violations are dealt with. The law will also guide the development of tourism.

But there will also have to be an education campaign for local communities as there is currently limited awareness among South Sudan’s communities on the importance of wildlife conservation.

At a local restaurant in Juba, 55-year-old Zachariai Lomude told IPS: “I love bush meat and have eaten it since I was a child. I will continue to eat it as long as I am alive regardless of whether killing wild animals is allowed or not.”

A member of the Mundari tribe stands amongst cattle in Terekeka, South Sudan. Livestock outnumber the population in South Sudan and has led to increasing environmental degradation. Credit: Jared Ferrie/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, May 12 2014 (IPS)

Twenty-year-old Wani Lo Keji stares at the sky as his herd of cattle drink water from the eastern bank of the Nile River, just opposite South Sudan’s capital, Juba.

“We bring our animals here everyday because the seasonal river near our village has dried. There were many herders fighting for water there,” he tells IPS.

Lo Keji’s problem is nothing out of the ordinary in a country where livestock outnumber the population. South Sudan has an estimated 11.7 million cattle, 12.4 million goats and 12.1 million sheep in a country of around 13 million people, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Tourism, Animal Resources, Fisheries.“Cattle in South Sudan are a curse. It is not a resource that benefits the people ... they are rearing it for prestige." -- Isaac Woja, natural resources management consultant

While South Sudan’s livestock population is estimated to have an asset value of 2.2 billion dollars — the highest per capita holding in Africa — Isaac Woja, a natural resources management consultant, tells IPS that these livestock are not being managed sustainably and are causing both water scarcity and environmental degradation.

“Cattle in South Sudan are a curse. It is not a resource that benefits the people because they are not rearing cattle for economic benefits or for food security benefits. They are rearing it for prestige.

“They just want to have many cattle so that they are respected in their communities on account for having the largest number of livestock in their area. That’s why in the dry season you find scarcity of water and pasture,” Woja adds.

In South Sudan, cattle are revered and there are communities where pastoralists won’t even contemplate slaughtering one of their cows for meat. So the country imports cattle, mainly from neighbouring Uganda, which is then slaughtered for meat.

According to the African Development Bank, 80 percent of the people here live in rural areas and rely on agriculture, forestry and fisheries for their livelihoods.

In many South Sudanese communities cows are mostly used to pay a bride wealth or dowry and as compensation in cases of murder or adultery.

“Cattle herders are proud of the quantity rather than the quality of the cattle they keep. This is leading to overgrazing on the land,” Justine Miteng of the Dutch development agency, SNV, tells IPS.

She explains that as a result water resources are also being misused.

“People come to water bodies to water their animals and cause damage to the river beds. The animals and the the pastoralists also defecate in the water, which in a way pollutes the water,” adds Miteng.

Woja adds that overgrazing and the resultant soil erosion is also an issue. “For example, if you can only graze three cows on half a hectare, you will find someone has 100 heads of cattle on that piece of land,” Woja explains.

To ensure animal resources are managed sustainably, Miteng says, there needs to be regulations about the number of animals pastoralists can own on a given piece of land.

“The most sustainable way is the reduction in the number of animals that we keep and introducing a settled way of farming. For example, if you have your own ranch you can keep your livestock on that restricted piece of land…

“You can at the same time harvest grass to make hay that you can use over a period of time when there is no live grass,” Miteng says.

Woja adds that to ensure sustainability, there should also be regulation in terms of how a specific piece of land should be used to rear cattle.

“If you have a big piece of communal land you should be able to divide it into paddocks so that you know this year you are grazing on this piece and the next year you will graze on another piece of land,” Woja says.

“If livestock is managed in a way that is profitable to the owners, then it will reduce cases of conflict over water and pasture, it will cause minimum damage to the environment and the quality of the livestock will improve.”

The unregulated exploitation of the land is due in part to a lack of clear policy from the government, according to Leben Nelson Moro, a professor of development studies at Juba University.

According to Moro, too much focus has been placed on the extraction of oil — oil contributes to 98 percent of South Sudan’s revenue — and the population pressure exerted by the large numbers of South Sudanese who returned from exile after the country’s independence.

“We need proper planning and policies. We should identify what natural resources we have and prepare good policies guiding how they should be used … to benefit the current and future generations. There should be a national plan to do that,” Moro tells IPS.

The government should also engage universities to carry out studies on how the country’s resources can best be managed in order to avoid exploitation, Moro adds.

“However, civil society should be there to check the government, which normally has its eye on the short-term benefits of exploiting natural resources rather than the long-term impact on communities,” Moro says.

But until this is done, people like Lo Keji and his family will keep procuring livestock for prestige.

“In our family we have four hundred animals and we are working hard to buy more,” Lo Keji says.

A man and his daughter return to Bor town, Jonglei state after the fierce fighting in the state and across the country largely ended in January. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Feb 27 2014 (IPS)

Gatmai Deng lost three family members in the violence that erupted in South Sudan on Dec. 15 and lasted until the end of January. And he blames their deaths on the government’s failure to use the country’s vast oil revenues to create a better life for its almost 11 million people.

When the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011, many hoped that their new government would provide them with the services that successive Sudanese governments had denied the South Sudanese, Gatmai tells IPS.

“But that government is no different from the Khartoum governments that marginalised South Sudanese citizens. Where are the hospitals? Where are the schools, where is the clean drinking water they promised us?” Gatmai asks.“It became easy to recruit those who felt excluded from the country’s wealth into hostile activities.” -- Dr. Leben Nelson Moro, professor of development studies at Juba University

South Sudan earns 98 percent of its revenue from oil exports. Between 2005 and 2012 – when the country stopped production because of a pipeline dispute with Sudan – South Sudan earned more than 10 billion dollars from oil exports, according to both government and World Bank officials.

When South Sudan resumed oil production in April 2013, the Ministry of Petroleum reported that it made 1.3 billion dollars in the first six months of production.

But despite this, most parts of the country are inaccessible by road. So far, South Sudan has slightly more than 110 kilometres of tarmac roads in the capital, Juba. There is only one 120-kilometre tarmac highway linking Juba to the border with neighbouring Uganda.

“I think the oil money is benefiting [President] Salva Kiir and his ministers,” Gatmai says from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, where he sought refuge following the outbreak of violence in his country. The fighting left thousands dead and wounded, displacing 863,000 others.

According to an interim human rights report released by the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan on Feb. 23, mass ethnic-based killings, gang rapes and torture were carried out by government troops and various opposition militia. Battles were fiercest in Jonglei, Upper Nile, Unity and Central Equatoria states.

But analysts agree with Gatmai that the economic conditions here, characterised by high unemployment amongst the youth, an almost non-existent private sector and an over-dependence on the government as the biggest sole employer, may have contributed to the current conflict.

Dr. Leben Nelson Moro, professor of development studies at Juba University tells IPS that oil has been more a curse than a blessing for South Sudan. Moro says once the violence started, “it became easy to recruit those who felt excluded from the country’s wealth into hostile activities.

“A lot of the oil revenues were taken by a few people in positions of authority. Services were not provided to large sections of the population. We don’t have roads [and] we don’t have other basic services such as health care,” Moro points out.

“The revenues were not used to generate employment for young people. This generated some grievance against the few people in government who seem to be benefiting from the country’s resources,” Moro says.

In practice, the government has no policy or strategy to increase the social economic integration of its youth.

A large majority of the population relies on the agriculture sector for survival and employment. However, the government is the single biggest employer in the country.

Badru Mulumba, editor of The New Times newspaper and a political commentator, tells IPS that it is this reliance on the government that led to the current conflict.

“In this case politicians who found themselves out of power wanted to get back to positions of power in order to sustain their influence back in their communities,” he says.

He explains that many ordinary, unemployed people looked towards their relatives in government  being in positions of power as their source of income and livelihood.

“If ordinary people had independent sources of income outside of the government, they wouldn’t have followed politicians who took up arms against those in power,” Mulumba explains.

According to the World Bank’s African Economic Outlook for 2012, youth unemployment in South Sudan remains quite high.

“Insufficient labour demand, lack of skilled labour supply, absence of a coherent government policy, and the lack of a sound legal and regulatory framework limit the absorption of youth by the labour market,” the document says.

There are no official figures on the rate of youth unemployment but figures from Oxfam International show that only 12 percent of women and 11 percent of men within the active population are formally employed.  

The reliance on livestock by the country’s largest ethnic groups may have also contributed to the instability here. Both the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups, among others, use cattle to pay bride price, pay compensation and penalties under customary law and even exchange cattle for food.

“A large population of the country relies on a cattle economy, so people somehow accept this culture where you can raid cattle from the rival communities so you can accumulate more and become powerful,” Mulumba says.

Between July 2011 and December 2012 alone, more than 3,000 civilians died in inter-communal fighting connected with cattle raiding in South Sudan’s Jonglei, Lakes, Unity and Warap states.

Anne Lino Wuor, a legislator from the country’s restive Jonglei state believes that if leaders engaged young people and provided them with jobs, they would abandon cattle raiding.

“I do think that the only way to bring stability and peace to South Sudan is through development,” Wuor tells IPS.

Pinyjwok Akol Ajawin, director general for youth at the Culture, Youth and Sports Ministry, tells IPS that the country’s “youth got politically manipulated”.

“They are following their elders and their tribesman. That’s why we are trying to reach out to them [to] enlighten them. Let them know that they are the youth of one country, they belong to South Sudan and they must co-exist so that they see themselves as brothers with those they are trying to fight.”

A National Youth Crisis Management Committee, a community service initiative for the youth, has been created with support from the government.

“This is the only way to keep young South Sudanese busy and to discourage them from joining the ongoing conflict between government and anti-government forces,” Ajawin says.

Edmond Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation, believes otherwise.

“It is only thorough economic reforms that we shall bring stability to this country,” he tells IPS.

Traditional dancers during celebrations to mark South Sudan's first independence anniversary on Jul. 9, 2012 in Juba. South Sudan’s government is preparing to launch a campaign to begin a healing and reconciliation process here. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Jun 3 2013 (IPS)

Susana Apai Wani has lived as a widow for more than two decades since her husband, James Wani, was arrested in 1992 by a policeman who accused him of collaborating with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which was a rebel political movement at the time.

This was on an evening in May 1992, when South Sudan was still part of Sudan and the southern rebels, the SPLM – now South Sudan’s ruling party – were fighting the Sudanese government for independence. The country’s civil war killed an estimated two million people and lasted for 22 years, from 1983 to 2005. South Sudan eventually became an independent nation on Jul. 9, 2011.

Wani has not seen her husband since his arrest. She was never officially told that he died, but other political detainees who spent time in prison with him, and were later freed, told her that he had been killed. "What has happened is in the past - let’s say: ‘Let’s leave it in the past.’” -- South Sudan’s vice president, Riek Machar

Wani told IPS she has already forgiven the ex-policeman whom she believes killed her husband, but would like to “just speak to him, to ask him why he did that to a fellow South Sudanese?”

Elia Kwaje*, a former child soldier with the SPLM’s army, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), admitted that he committed many atrocities during the civil war.

“One day I raped a young girl… and another time I shot and killed a pregnant woman,” he told IPS.

“I really feel bad about it but it was during the war. We were thinking differently during the war… one day I want to ask for forgiveness but I don’t know if people will understand,” he said.

But Kwaje may soon have the chance. South Sudan’s government is preparing to launch a campaign to begin a healing and reconciliation process here, based on the model of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) established by South Africa following the end of apartheid.

The TRC was set up by the South African government in 1995 to provide a way for its citizens to come to terms with the violence of the apartheid era by giving both perpetrators and survivors of violence a chance to testify. Perpetrators were allowed to apply for immunity from civil and criminal prosecution.

During a week-long conference at the end of the year President Salva Kiir will launch a campaign that will coincide with the commencement of hearings by the country’s Presidential Committee for Peace, Reconciliation and Tolerance. The process is expected to last five to 10 years.

Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul will lead the committee of mainly religious leaders which will hear testimony from both perpetrators and survivors.

However, while the committee will not prosecute wrongdoers for their crimes, they will not be safe from civil prosecution. But in a country where, according to the United Nations Development Programme, 90 percent of its 10 million people survive on less than one dollar a day, this seems unlikely.

“The war has created trauma in all of us. We must come out and talk about people reconciling and stop living in the past. What has happened is in the past – let’s say: ‘Let’s leave it in the past,’” South Sudan’s vice president, Riek Machar, who has been at the forefront of efforts to reconcile the South Sudanese, told IPS.

Last year, he apologised to Jonglei state’s Dinka Bor community for his role in what is commonly referred to as the “Bor massacre”. Machar had been head of the SPLA faction that killed hundreds and possibly thousands of people in 1991 in Bor, Jonglei state. People were killed when Machar and Lam Akol, another key rebel leader, broke away from the SPLA that year. Machar later renamed his faction South Sudan Independence Movement.

In addition to atrocities committed during the civil war, the new country has to deal with cattle raids that ultimately turn into massacres.

More than 1,000 people died in fighting between the Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic groups in Jonglei state in 2011. At least 900 more died in clashes from December 2011 to February 2012. The U.N. says at least 120,000 people have been affected by inter-ethnic violence in Jonglei state.

However, Professor Alfred Lokuji of the faculty of peace and rural development at South Sudan’s University of Juba, told IPS that perpetrators of violence needed to take responsibility for their crimes rather than excuse their behaviour because of the war.

“We cannot have an intelligent discussion about peace and unity if we do not want to admit that there are victims of our actions,” he said.

While welcoming the reconciliation process, civil society activists have warned that it should not be politicised and override justice.

“The ongoing violation of human rights in places like Jonglei state, where there are cattle raids and killings, should not be condoned in the name of reconciliation,” Biel Boutros Biel of the South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy told IPS

Sarah Ajith James, chairperson of the South Sudan Women General Association, an umbrella organisation of women’s groups, told IPS that women were particularly demoralised by the rampant violence in parts of the country. Many remained resentful of the violence they have lived through, she said.

“I have been moving from one state to another educating women about their rights. When we were training the women, we heard a lot of murmuring. But I feel bad because people are bitter, people are frustrated. Some of them are even asking: ‘Why did we vote for independence? It would have been better if we had remained as one country,’” James said.

*Name changed to protect identity.

Women of the Murle ethnic group in South Sudan. The practice of child marriage is still supported in many South Sudanese communities, where girls are seen as a source of wealth because of the bride price families are paid. Credit: Jared Ferrie/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, May 24 2013 (IPS)

“Our daughters are our only source of wealth. Where else do you expect me to get cows from?” asks 60-year-old Jacob Deng from South Sudan’s Jonglei state.

Deng’s attitude is a widespread one here as the practice of child marriage is still supported in many South Sudanese communities, where girls are seen as a source of wealth because of the bride price families are paid.

According to the Ministry of Gender and Child Affairs, 48 percent of South Sudanese girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are married, with some being as young as 12 years old when they are married off.

South Sudan’s Child Act 2008 sets the minimum age of marriage at 18, and says that anyone contravening this law faces up to seven years in prison. However, Minister of Gender and Child Affairs Agnes Kwaje Losuba admitted that it is not enforced.

Child marriage is part of the traditions of many communities. “Once a girl reaches puberty she is already a woman. As long as there is someone willing to pay many cows (for her), I will marry off my daughter,” Deng tells IPS.“Early marriage, violence against women and many other things at the grassroots that women are suffering from are because of customary law. So we need to do something about it." -- Angelina Daniel Seeka

Fifty-year-old Biel Gatmai from Upper Nile state tells IPS that he supports child marriage because he fears his daughters will fall pregnant out of wedlock – something that is abhorred by local cultures here.

“It is better for a girl to get married at a young age than to keep her in her parents’ house and she falls pregnant. If her first child is born out of wedlock, whoever marries her later will pay only a few cows,” Gatmai says.

As South Sudan goes through a constitutional review process, which includes the hosting of seminars and workshops across the country to obtain input from citizens on the new constitution, the issue of child marriage is something that has been frequently discussed.

President Salva Kiir appointed a 55-member Constitutional Review Commission in 2012 to assess and improve on the country’s current transitional constitution, which was adopted on Jul. 9, 2011, the day South Sudan became an independent nation.

The commission is expected to submit the draft for a new constitution by December 2014.

According to the United Nations, women and girls in South Sudan remain particularly vulnerable. After a civil war with Sudan that lasted 21 years, they have been the victims of the worst human rights abuses, including rape and abduction. An estimated two million people were killed and four million displaced before a 2005 treaty ended the conflict by splitting Sudan in two.

In mid-April the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it was concerned about the role of women in the country given the continuing inter-communal violence that regularly threatens civilians, especially women and children. At least 1,600 people died in 2011 in fighting between the Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic groups, according to the U.N.

A South Sudanese fruit vendor near the country’s capital, Juba. According to the United Nations, women and girls in South Sudan remain particularly vulnerable. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

In April, the head of UNMISS, Hilde Johnson, told reporters in Juba that the U.N. was dedicated to enforcing the rights of women, children and the elderly who were “particularly vulnerable and need protection.”

Paleki Mathew Obur, director of the local NGO South Sudan Women’s Empowerment Network, says they want the issue of a minimum marriageable age addressed in the new constitution, as it is not defined in the current transitional one.

“Different organisations have gone to (Sudan’s various) states and have gathered different recommendations for the minimum age of marriage. Some people are saying that it should be 18 and others are saying 25 years should be the minimum age,” she tells IPS.

Angelina Daniel Seeka, from the local NGO End Impunity, tells IPS that the root cause of child marriage lies within customary law.

“Early marriage, violence against women and many other things at the grassroots that women are suffering from are because of customary law. So we need to do something about it. I hope we will come up with something that can help women in the future,” she says.

Activists say that the unwritten nature of customary law here serves as an opportunity for local chiefs – who are almost all men – to interpret the law in any way they want.

According to Lorna James Elia, head of the women’s organisation Voice for Change, the new constitution should redefine customary law.

“What we are saying is that there are areas in customary law that are very good and we can retain them. But those aspects that are very discriminative, whether they are cherished by women or cherished by men, should be dealt away with,” she tells IPS.

Under South Sudan’s judicial system, customary law, which consists of numerous unwritten traditional laws, is applied alongside statutory law.

But the practice remains contentious, as many instances of customary law here are considered unjust. For example, under customary law if a person commits murder their family compensates the bereaved family by giving them a young female relative.

“We want the constitution to include a clause making it clear that no human being is to be used to compensate the family of a murdered person. There should be no child compensation,” rights activist Buruna Ciricio said at a recent U.N.-backed national women’s conference on constitutional development in Juba.

Customary law also forces a widow to be “given” to a brother or relative of her late husband. She is not eligible to inherit her husband’s land or property, and her “new husband” will inherit in her stead and is expected to take care of her.

Once the new constitution is finally drafted, it is expected to be debated in parliament in early 2015, before it is signed into law.

In 2011 the government announced that South Sudan’s illiteracy rate was 73 percent. Credit: John Robinson/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Dec 12 2012 (IPS)

South Sudan may have received slightly more than 10 billion dollars in oil revenue from 2005 to January 2012, when oil production shut down, according to both government officials and the World Bank.

But development experts have urged the government to begin investing in the country and its people, as basic social services remain scarce.

South Sudan shut down its production of oil after a dispute with neighbouring Sudan over transit fees earlier this year. But production is expected to resume in the next few months, after an agreement between the two countries was reached in September.

However, Dr. Leben Nelson Moro of Juba University’s Faculty of Peace and Development Studies told IPS that the government needed to start setting part of the oil revenues aside to build much-needed infrastructure to kick start this east-central African nation’s development.

“The oil money must be used in a manner that will be beneficial to the whole country and not the few people who are close to the treasury,” he said.

While the government helps fund primary and secondary school education and health services at hospitals in some state capitals, its contribution to these services is minimal.

In some hospitals, workers’ salaries and medicines are paid for by NGOs, and sometimes the not-for-profit organisations are the sole providers of school textbooks and other stationary supplies in schools here.

“The government needs to adopt new ways of managing the oil revenues so that money goes to development projects that benefit the whole country,” Moro stressed.

“We know that while many parts of the country are food insecure, there are places like Yei (Yei County in Central Equatoria State) and Western Equatoria state that produce plenty of food. You need to build roads to where the food is produced,” he said.

South Sudan has only 110 kilometres of tarmac roads in the capital, Juba, with only one tarmac road linking the city to the Ugandan border. In addition, many areas here are only accessible by air.

Moro said that the government also needed to prioritise education and also provide basic services like healthcare.

“We have many young people who need skills. The government should ensure young people receive skills training to enable them to get jobs.

“In order for our people to work hard and develop the country, they must first be in good health. But for them to be healthy there must be good healthcare services in the country,” said Moro.

The majority of South Sudan’s nearly nine million people have no access to any form of healthcare.

According to the Ministry of Health, South Sudan currently has 120 medical doctors, slightly over 100 registered nurses and less than 150 qualified midwives.

In some rural areas patients have to walk for two or more days to reach the nearest healthcare centre.

South Sudan has some of the worst health indicators globally. According to the United Nations Population Fund, this country’s maternal mortality rate is the worst in the world with 2,054 deaths for every 100,000 live births, largely because about 90 percent of women give birth away from formal medical facilities. Hospitals here lack drugs, equipment and trained workers. In addition, they are overcrowded.

Kenyi Spencer, an environmental economist and World Bank consultant on private sector development, told IPS that given that oil is a non-renewable resource, the money earned from it should be used to develop other sectors, like agricultural production.

“Agriculture will be the real driver of South Sudan’s economy in future, but the government has to take measures to develop it,” Spencer said.

He urged the government to prioritise education, arguing that the country’s high illiteracy rate was hindering development efforts. In 2011 the government announced that South Sudan’s illiteracy rate was 73 percent.

This country became Africa’s newest nation in July 2011. But decades of war with Sudan have meant that only a handful of the population were able to attend school.

“What is needed here is really a technical, rather than a theoretical, education. For this country to develop it needs plumbers, electricians, mechanics, carpenters and so forth. That is where the money should be invested,” Spencer said.

High among expectations is that as oil begins to flow again, the government will end the current austerity measures introduced in February. The measures, which included a cut in civil servants’ salaries, were implemented soon after the shut-down in oil production, which accounted for 98 percent of the country’s total GDP.

Many have not been happy with the forced cutbacks in this landlocked nation. On Sep. 7, in Rumbek Central County in the Lakes state, a group of 30 policemen attacked and shot the county’s Police Inspector Lieutenant Colonel Mangar Kajeny Kamich in the arm. They were reportedly unhappy about pay cuts.

The previous day, wildlife officers in the same state beat up their immediate superior after a reduction in their pay was announced, according to a report by the local Sudan Tribune newspaper.

Moro said that the government needed to increase civil servants’ salaries once the country began producing oil.

Soldiers patrol an oil field in Paloug, in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state. Credit:Jared Ferrie/IPS

“Many civil servants were affected by these measures. In the universities, some of the staff lost almost 75 percent of their income. Once oil begins to flow, it is inevitable that the government will have to do something about salaries,” he said.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir promised in November that once oil production began, resources would be devoted to service delivery. Currently 40 percent of the country’s budget is spent on defence, and significant amounts have be lost  through corruption.

“Our physical and food security are top on the list of priority services we want to provide to our people. We will use the oil money to improve agriculture by providing farmers with seeds, tools and improved access to markets,” he said.

South Sudan's Petroleum and Mining Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau speaks at a meeting with donors earlier this year. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Nov 28 2012 (IPS)

As South Sudan continues negotiations with Sudan regarding the resumption of oil production and transit, the South Sudanese government says that it is developing its own industry and will start producing fuel for domestic consumption within the next eight months in order to avoid continued reliance on its neighbour.

South Sudan’s Petroleum and Mining Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau told IPS that as oil was due to start flowing again, one of the government’s priorities was to establish the nation’s infrastructure in order to process the commodity itself.

“Our aim is to ensure that some of the oil can be processed in the country to meet domestic needs and end the frequent shortages of diesel and petrol in our country,” Dau said.

South Sudan shut down its production of oil in January after a dispute with neighbouring Sudan over oil transit fees. Both countries agreed to resume oil production and trade on Sep. 27 after former South African President Thabo Mbeki led the African Union’s mediation efforts in attempting to defuse a range of disagreements that spiked in January, which almost led to full-blown war in April.

Oil sales contributed 98 percent of South Sudan’s revenue. But despite taking with it 75 percent of Sudan’s oil when it gained independence from the rest of the country in 2011, South Sudan currently relies on Sudanese refineries and pipelines to process and transport its oil to the international market.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir said on Monday Nov. 26 at a meeting of state governors that oil production had not resumed this month as originally expected because of demands by Sudan that the country disarm the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North.

He did add that the issue would be resolved soon as he had spoken with Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir on Sunday Nov. 25 and they agreed that officials from the two countries would soon meet to discuss the issue.

But in a bid to reduce reliance on Sudan, on Nov. 20 Kiir launched the construction of an oil refinery in Melut, an oil-producing area in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state. A second refinery is being built in Tharjath, another oil-producing area located in the country’s Unity state. Both refineries are expected to have the capacity to refine 10,000 barrels per day.

Dau said the oil refineries were expected to be operational by July 2013, when the government expects to start producing fuel for domestic consumption.

“These refineries will create employment opportunities for our youth, which is one of the things we want so that people benefit from our natural resources,” Dau added.

Edmond Yakani of the local NGO Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation said that in addition to refineries, the landlocked country needed to build its own pipeline to the Kenyan Port of Lamu.

“I don’t think relations between the two countries will get any better and therefore South Sudan should endeavour to build its own pipeline,” Yakani told IPS.

Oil storage facilities at Bentiu, Unity State, South Sudan. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

Finance Minister Kosti Manibe Ngai said three months ago that work on the pipeline would start in June next year at an estimated cost of three billion dollars.

“The government also needs to build reservoirs so that if there are any problems with Sudan we can still have fuel to keep the country going,” Yakani added.

Despite having four billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the largest in East Africa, South Sudan still has to surmount daunting capacity issues.

The acting director general in the Energy and Mining Ministry Simon Chol Martin told IPS that the government was concerned about the small number of South Sudanese being employed by oil operating companies.

The Chinese-Malaysian consortium Dar Petroleum is currently South Sudan’s largest oil operator and Chinese and Malaysian nationals usually occupy technical and senior positions in the oil industry here. Prior to independence Sudanese nationals filled these positions, but many left the country after independence.

Paul Adong, chief executive of South Sudan’s national oil company, Nile Petroleum Corporation (NilePet), told IPS that the government’s priority was to ensure South Sudanese were recruited into the sector and that the necessary capacity building was done “to ensure that we increase the number of South Sudanese who can take charge of the sector in the long run.”

In order to improve the capacity of local staff, the government is working to reach an agreement with Norway’s Petrad to provide training, he said.

“There is only one way of building an exploration and production company and that’s through hands-on experience. It’s a knowledge-intensive process and you need not only the right degrees but practical experience in engineering,” Adong said. He added that once Juba resumed oil production, NilePet would build South Sudanese expertise in the industry.

Adong said with continuous capacity building he hoped NilePet would be successful in five years time. “I hope by then we will have the technical know-how. We would say we are successful if NilePet can operate a field entirely on its own,” he said.

Meanwhile, local communities and activists are urging oil companies to protect the environment in oil-producing areas and have called for reports of pollution to be investigated.

John Lam Obur, a Juba University student who hails from Melut, in Upper Nile state, said that the activities of oil companies had led to environmental pollution in his home area.

“Cattle are dying when they drink rain water near the oil fields, people are suffering from diseases never seen before, and the whole air smells bad because of the waste material from the oil fields,” he told IPS.

But Adong said oil companies were aware of the concerns and were working to address them, adding that they did not want to repeat the mistakes made by other oil companies in parts of Africa such as in the Niger Delta in Nigeria.

“We would rather give up the dollars and keep our community safe and our environment safe,” he said.

Pressure from ethnic groups along the border, security concerns, and keen interest in resources like oil and land are making it difficult for Sudan and South Sudan – the world’s newest country – to resolve their dispute over the fertile, oil-rich region of Abyei and demarcate their common border.
Speaking in Turkey on Monday, Sudan’s first vice president, Ali Osman Taha, called for a referendum to resolve the issue.

In talks last week in the Ethiopian capital, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and President Salva Kiir of South Sudan signed economic and security accords that will allow a resumption of oil exports from South Sudan. However, no agreement on Abyei was reached.

The African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), which is mediating between the two countries, presented proposals on the final status of Abyei on Sep. 21.

One of the reasons the Abyei region is disputed is that it offers grazing land for cattle, which are valued in Sudan and South Sudan for their intrinsic wealth. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

The proposal includes a call on Sudan to recognise Abyei as a historic land of the Dinka Ngok – the biggest ethnic group in South Sudan, which became an independent nation in July 2011 – and their right to civic and political participation and to protection of individual rights.

Juba accepted the African Union proposals. But Khartoum rejected them, saying the mediators did not recognise the right of the nomadic Misseriya Arab ethnic group to participate in a referendum on the final status of Abyei.

“I think it is difficult for both governments to give up Abyei because of the need to satisfy the needs of ethnic groups on the border,” Dr. Leben Nelson Moro, a professor of development studies at the University of Juba, told IPS.

For centuries, Arab nomads from Sudan’s South Kordofan state have grazed their animals in Abyei, where pasture and water are available even during the dry season. But the Dinka Ngok, the traditional inhabitants of the area, consider the land to be theirs from time immemorial.

“Officials in Khartoum want to satisfy the interests of the Misseriya,” Egbert Wesselink of the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan told IPS. “They do not want to alienate these people.”

But, he added, “Abyei is a matter of survival for the Dinka Ngok people of South Sudan. About 10 years ago there was a meeting of Dinka Ngok elders and they resolved ‘let’s give the oil to the north and keep the land’. That means for these people it is the land rather than the oil that matters.”

After Sudan’s independence in 1956, the largely Muslim Arab north and the mainly Christian and animist south fought two civil wars. The most recent lasted over two decades, and an estimated two million people were killed and four million displaced before a 2005 treaty ended the conflict by splitting the country in two.

Although the two countries have agreed on 75 to 80 percent of their border based on a 1956 map drawn by the then colonial government of Britain, the actual demarcation has not taken place.

Both governments are under pressure from communities along the border, who want to be assured that they will still be allowed to cross to the other side.

Khartoum is particularly concerned about the views of the nomadic communities along the border, which want guarantees that they will be allowed to graze their animals in the disputed areas.

“Fixing a border is not in line with the way the people in border areas live,” Wesselink said.

Juba is under similar pressure from border communities. “For example the people of Pariang County (in Unity state) believe the disputed oil-producing area of Panthou (where the Heglig oil field is located) is their territory,” Moro said. “So the government in South Sudan feels it has a responsibility to work for the interests of these people.”

Another factor hindering the resolution of disputes and the demarcation of the border has to do with security concerns on both sides, but especially in Sudan, which links the security of the disputed border areas to its own survival.

“The pastoralist Arab tribes of Rezeigat, Misseriya and Baggara already feel marginalised by Khartoum. The leadership (of Sudan) is aware of this and wants to protect the interests of these people,” said Edmong Yakani, coordinator of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO), a local NGO that has studied relations between communities along the border.

“Khartoum thinks that if the border is demarcated and the pasture lands end up as part of South Sudan, then there is a danger that the tribes allied to it will feel marginalised and let down by Khartoum. Given that Khartoum is already fighting SPLM-N (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North) rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, it is keen not to offend more ethnic groups, to prevent further rebellion,” Yakani told IPS.

Because of the conflict in these two Sudanese states, Khartoum wants to take charge of all the disputed areas so it can try to cut the rebels’ access to South Sudan, which it accuses of supporting them. “The government would like to have good allies in the area, for example people like the Murahalin (Arab nomads),” Moro said.

Some observers also say the two countries see the border areas as sources of wealth.

“Look at the Gezira area and the White Nile area of Sudan, which are wealthy agricultural areas. It is the same case with South Sudan, which also wants to secure areas like Renk and Aweil, which are all agriculturally rich,” Yakani said.

South Sudan army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer recently stated that he believed Khartoum was using militias opposed to the South Sudan government to derail plans to resolve border issues, with a view to taking possession of oil resources in border areas.

“The logical way forward would be an international arbitration to resolve the dispute,” Wesselink said. “However, the problem…is that you have no guarantee that either side will accept the results.”

International arbitration could help the two countries deal with pressure from communities in the disputed area. “At least if the dispute is resolved through international arbitration, the leaders can say ‘we have tried our best, but somebody (in charge of the arbitration) thinks differently’,” Moro said.

In 2009 Juba and Khartoum turned to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to define the borders and inhabitants of Abyei. But Khartoum rejected the court’s decision.

“The situation is different now, however, and Khartoum is under immense pressure and it is likely that they would accept the result of any arbitration,” Wesselink said.

Despite the current tension along the borders, especially between the armies of the two countries, the border communities have for long lived fairly peacefully side by side. Given the years and years of intermarriage, it is only natural that the communities would be unhappy with a borderline dividing them, Yakani said.

“People along the border know each other better than people in Khartoum and Juba do. Let these communities be asked to prescribe a solution to the border disputes based on a way that suits their interests,” he said.

Men and women plant vegetable seeds in a nursery bed in Eastern Equatoria state, South Sudan. The state has given civil servants Fridays and Saturdays off to farm. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA , Sep 5 2012 (IPS)

Police in South Sudan have begun press-ganging every “idle” youth they can find to provide labour on police farms. The State Police Commissioner in Northern Bahr al Gazal state says young men cannot be left to drink tea and play cards all day while food insecurity threatens the country.

“Anyone who does not want to cultivate will be captured and brought to plant for us. Whether you are a soldier, or a policeman, or a member of the prison service … if you choose to put on your best clothes to come and loiter in town, we shall take you to work for us. Whether you want it or not,” State Police Commissioner Akot Deng Akot told IPS.

A staggering 4.7 million South Sudanese – almost half the population – are food insecure, according to the United Nations.

“One million of these people are severely food insecure meaning they can only afford to eat one meal once in two or three days, while the other 3.7 million people are moderately food insecure meaning they can at least afford to eat a meal per day,” the U.N.’s Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, Lise Grande, told IPS in an earlier interview.

The countrywide food insecurity is being blamed on a number of factors, including a cereal deficit. According to the U.N. the deficit doubled from 200,000 metric tonnes in 2011 to 470,000 this year. In addition, high fuel prices and a weakening local currency have contributed to the situation.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, more than 80 percent of Northern Bahr al Ghazal’s estimated 790, 898 people are affected by food insecurity.

And it has resulted in drastic measures by state authorities attempting to encourage farming in the region. Akot even warned people against attending local courts dealing with petty disputes.

“This also applies to people who go and crowd at local courts in disputes over ownership of cows. Such courts will not be allowed to operate during cultivation (which lasts from October to December) so that everybody goes to their farms to produce food,” he said.

In fact, some arrests have already been made. A local journalist from Northern Bahr al Ghazal state, Hou Akot Hou, said that police arrested dozens of youth under the orders of a local chief, Atak Awan Anei, who is also the brother of Northern Bahr al Ghazal Governor Paul Malong Awan Anei. The arrests occurred in July in Warwar – a market near the South Sudan-Sudan border.

Some locals are supportive of the policy.

“The government should force older boys who are capable of taking care of themselves and are loitering in town to go and cultivate,” local resident Justin Ayuer told IPS.

Local teenager Titotiek Chour concurred: “We as youth have the energy to produce food. We have a chance to do more and we should use this opportunity to produce food and improve the lives of our people.”

Northern Bahr al Ghazal state is not the only region trying to institute policies to encourage food production.

Since April, in Eastern and Central Equatoria state, officials have given civil servants Fridays and Saturdays off to farm.

Eastern Equatoria state’s Governor Louis Lobong Lojore threatened to cut the salaries of civil servants who do not use the time off to work on their farms. He said that the measure was necessary as some civil servants were drinking, and playing cards and dominoes instead of farming.

Those who did so, he said, would lose two days of pay every week while the programme lasts. Eastern Equatoria state’s Information Minister Felix Otudwa told IPS that he believed the government’s initiative would lead to an increase in food production and security this year.

“These days you do not see people sitting under trees drinking tea or playing cards the way it used to be in the past. Everybody is busy farming, even on weekends. The governor, minister and other senior civil servants are all involved in cultivation these days. This year, we will all harvest in a big way,” Otudwa said.

But not everyone is comfortable with the forced regulations.

Edmond Yakani, the coordinator of local rights organisation Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation, told IPS that the policy was illegal.

“Where is the law that allows them to arrest people simply because they are not on a farm during work hours? Who passed that law and when?” Yakani asked.

He said that it was equally wrong for the government of Eastern Equatoria to cut the salaries of civil servants who do not use their given days off to farm.

“Where is the law that allows them to cut people’s salaries?” Yakani asked.

“A law has to be passed, and this can only be passed by the South Sudan National Assembly so that it becomes obligatory for everyone to farm,” he said.

He said that the government needed to facilitate voluntary farming by improving access to land, tools and seeds.

A state official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the decision to designate Friday and Saturdays as farming days for all civil servants would affect the delivery of health services and affect patients who badly needed treatment.

But Isaac Woja, an agriculturalist and natural resources management expert, said the initiatives might turn out to be successful.

“I think people are taking farming seriously as compared to previous years. When you travel you see more crops on more farms along the road side, and this means that more people have gotten involved in cultivation this year,” Woja told IPS.

He added that only an assessment after the harvest season would determine whether or not the initiative leads to an increase in food production.

Central Equatoria state’s Agriculture Minister Michael Roberto Kenyi told IPS that the policy of giving civil servants days off was making a difference and that civil servants had to lead by example.

“Leadership in the past used to be that you should have a house, a garden and a granary. A leader must have these things to be considered a leader. As a civil servant, you need to be exemplary to the community and you cannot be exemplary when your granary is empty,” he said.

He said that an assessment would be done by the state after the December harvest.

“We are going to conduct an assessment. We will be asking people to tell us the size of area under cultivation or the acreage, the number of hours worked to and the quantity of produce harvested to determine if there has been an increase in food production due to the new initiative,” Kenyi told IPS.

A nurse attends to an expectant mother at Walgak Primary Health Care Centre in South Sudan's Jonglei State. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Jul 9 2012 (IPS)

One year after the formation of South Sudan, the country’s women say that independence has not resulted in the positive political, economic and social changes that they had hoped for.

Women activists worry that even after separation from Sudan on Jul. 9, 2011, when South Sudan became the world’s newest country and Africa’s 54th nation, the government has not done enough to improve the lives of its women.

But as people across the country celebrate the first anniversary of independence from Sudan, after a 21-year civil war, the year has been fraught with crises.

The country is in the midst of an economic crisis after South Sudan’s decision in January to shut down oil production, which accounts for 98 percent of the its revenue, following a dispute with Sudan over fees charged to use its pipelines.

There is also dire food insecurity here. In June, the United Nations World Food Programme said that more than half of the country’s 8.2 million people would need food aid by the end of the year.

In the country’s Upper Nile state, the Jamam refugee camp is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. The camp is home to some of the 200,000 refugees who, according to the U.N., have fled the conflict in Sudan’s Blue state.

However, Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that the mortality rate among children at the camp was 2.8 per 10,000 per day. This figure is above the emergency threshold of two per 10,000.

Amidst all of this both women leaders and activists admit that they had high expectations of the country’s first year. Some feel that the reality of independence has failed to live up to the hype and euphoria.

“We had high expectations, but I think they are not unrealistic and should not be pushed aside. Women are doing badly politically, economically, socially and education wise. The government needs to take measures to address the challenges facing women so that they can truly enjoy life in their new independent country,” Lorna Merekaje, of the South Sudan Domestic Election Monitoring and Observation Programme, told IPS.

Others disagree.

The Central Equatoria state Governor’s advisor on conflict resolution, Helen Murshali Boro, said that women’s concerns would be addressed.

“There is freedom of speech to allow women to express themselves and this means women’s concerns will not go off the radar until they are addressed in the coming years of our country’s independence,” she said.

Though the reality still remains far different.

“Like in the past when South Sudan was still part of Sudan, today women live in poverty,” said Lona James Elia, executive director of a local women’s rights agency, Voice For Change.

The National Baseline Household Survey (NBHS), conducted in 2009 and released in June 2012, indicates that over half of South Sudan’s 8.2 million people live below the poverty line on less than a dollar a day. The majority of the poor are women.

Elia added that South Sudan is still unable to provide maternal health services to the country’s women, especially in rural areas.

According to the U.N. Children’s Fund only 19 percent of births are attended by a skilled health worker. According to the NBHS, 30 percent of the population has no access to basic health services.

The few available health facilities lack supplies and qualified personnel to provide the required services. And in some rural areas women cannot receive maternal and antenatal care because they live too far from the nearest maternity clinic. Thirty-seven percent of poor households have to travel for more than an hour to reach their nearest most-used health facility, according to the NBHS.

“Women are still dying while giving birth. They are still not accessing maternal health services. A woman is not supposed to die because she is giving birth to a new life, a new baby. This is not acceptable,” Elia told IPS.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2011 the country recorded that 2,054 out of every 100,000 women died during childbirth. The high mortality rate has not changed much a year later, according to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

In June, Kate Gilmore, assistant secretary-general and deputy executive director (Programme) of the UNFPA, told reporters in Juba that maternal mortality rates in South Sudan remained the worst in the world.

“The latest evidence that we have is that using standard figures in every 100,000 births there are over two thousand women who die from preventable causes in South Sudan. In Afghanistan, which surely is one of the most troubled countries in the world, it is half that. Across Africa it is five hundred,” she had said.

Elia said the government needed to invest in maternal health services to ensure that women could participate in developing the country.

“A mother should not have to travel all the way from Gondokoro to Juba to deliver a baby because there is no hospital in her home city,” Elia said. Gondokoro is about 20 km from Juba and also within Central Equatoria state. She added that because the nearest health care centre was too far, some women died along the way.

However, government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said that the government had worked hard to improve living standards.
“We have initiated projects, including building schools and health centres, which will benefit all South Sudanese citizens, including women,” he told IPS.

In addition, the government has implement an affirmative action policy that ensures 25 percent women’s representation in all government jobs at national, state and county levels.

“You see after independence the president appointed six women to the cabinet and about nine to 10 assistant ministers. I think with about 16 women in the national government, the government has responded positively,” said Boro.

Currently there are four female ministers out of a total of 29, and eight female assistant ministers from a total of 27.

However, activists say that this has not directly affected the lives of the country’s women.

“When you look at the middle-class women and those at the grassroots they are still not in positions where they can make decisions that benefit women,” Merekaje told IPS.

Boro admitted that women still occupy low entry positions in the work field.

“Although these days you see more women coming to work in the morning, at the end of the day they go home with peanuts because they work in the less-paid, low positions,” Boro said.

Elia said that women were unable to find employment because the majority are illiterate and do not have the vocational skills required by employers. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 88 percent of South Sudanese women are illiterate. In addition, the U.N. says that only one percent of girls complete primary school.

“Women are the most illiterate and because, despite the independence of our country, women at the grassroots level still remain the most underprivileged segment of society as they have to depend on men for survival,” Elia told IPS.

Jerisa Yide is one such example. The 65-year-old grandmother earns a living breaking stones and rocks into gravel, which she sells to builders.

“I used to crash stones before independence to enable me to pay my grandchildren’s school fees. We are now independent, but we are even paying more fees for our children to go to school,” said Yide.

Primary and secondary school education are not free in South Sudan. And as a result of the shut down on oil production, the government introduced an austerity budget in January where it scrapped free university education.

Yide said that when she voted for independence she expected the government to provide better services, including education and health.

Selina Modong agreed that not much had changed. She said that the cost of living in Juba had increased since independence. As a result of the economic crisis, inflation has soared to a staggering 80 percent in May.

“I was eating one meal per day before independence. Today I still eat one meal per day and sometimes we hardly eat good food these days,” Modong said.

“I think independence has not changed anything for us poor people,” Modong concluded.

Elia said that everyone should participate in ensuring that the women’s agenda is addressed.

“If you want this independence to benefit everyone, the issue of women should not be for women alone. It should be for everybody. Let us ensure that our daughters have a bright future. That they will get the education they want, that they will get the employment they want and that they will get the health services they deserve to build healthy families for themselves,” said Elia.

The U.N.’s World Food Programme will provide food aid to 2.7 million people out of 4.7 million people who need food aid in South Sudan this year. Credit:Jared Ferrie/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Jun 1 2012 (IPS)

The United Nations has warned that despite the austerity measures put in place by South Sudan to deal with its economic woes, humanitarian agencies will have to increase relief efforts in order to keep the country’s poor alive as the financial situation worsens.

“It is going be the humanitarians who are going provide the assistance that is necessary to help families survive,” U.N. humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan Lise Grande told IPS.

The economic crisis was triggered by South Sudan’s decision to shut down oil production, which accounts for 98 precent of the country’s revenue, at the end of January following a dispute with Sudan over fees charged to use its pipelines.

The government introduced austerity measures shortly afterwards, which include cutting essentials such as investments, halving expenditure on government institutions, limiting borrowing to only fund activities that will stimulate economic growth such as infrastructure development, and intensifying tax revenue collection efforts.

The government has also resorted to heavy international borrowing, acquiring a number of large loans from foreign banks in order to ease the financial crisis.

However, Grande told IPS that if the government ran out of money to provide health care and education, communities would be badly affected.

“We are all worried that as austerity bites deeper and deeper into households, it is going be the humanitarian agencies that are going have to step up their operations, step up their support to help those families pull through,” Grande told IPS.

While economists and the World Bank warn that South Sudan’s economy could totally collapse before the end of the year, leaders here insist that this is not true. (The local Sudan Tribune reported on May 6 that leaked documents from the World Bank claimed that the country could possibly face “state collapse”.)

“South Sudan will go for as long as it takes. We have no plan to collapse as some of the people who are not wishing us well would like to believe. We have no plan to die. We are here to stay,” Finance and Economic Planning Minister Kosti Manibe told IPS.

However, the cessation of oil production has led to an acute shortage of foreign currency. Consequently the local currency has declined drastically against the dollar. The official rate is 2.95 South Sudanese Pounds to the dollar, but it has plunged to five pounds to the dollar on the black market from 3.5 in January. In an earlier interview with IPS, Grande said that prices of basic commodities in border communities have risen as much as 200 percent.

Consequently, fuel is now scarce and prices have increased to about 30 pounds (six dollars) per litre for both diesel and petrol, compared to six pounds before the crisis.

In addition the country’s inflation rate jumped to 50.9 percent in March from 21.3 percent in February, South Sudan’s statistics office said.

“Times are hard. That is true, but we have measures to deal with them and we will (survive)… just like we did during the difficult times of the war,” Manibe insisted. The country, which was formerly part of Sudan, was embroiled in a civil war from 1983 to 2005.

However, Spencer Kenyi, an environmental economist and World Bank consultant on the private sector in South Sudan, said it was wrong for the government to use its people’s ability to endure hardships as an excuse for its failure to address the current economic challenges.

“People suffered during the war but it was not their wish. They had no choice. The government needs to create some semblance of order by not only implementing policy but also by implementing the right policy to improve the lives of people,” he said.

He is one of the many who have criticised the government’s decision to stop oil production saying it was taken prematurely without any prior consideration or preparation for the consequences.

Meanwhile, the government has stated that is currently relying on reserves from savings it claims where accumulated over the last seven years. While the government has not revealed how much money it has in hand, it said that the funds would last for 18 months.

“If these reserves run out, it is obvious that the economy will collapse. There are already a few signs showing that the system is beginning to collapse. The fact that there is no longer fuel in filling stations shows us that unless we do something drastic, the economy will soon collapse. The lack of fuel affects all aspects of our lives,” said Kenyi.

Former Finance and Economic Planning Minister Arthur Akuein Chol has also criticised the government for not diversifying into other forms of revenue generation apart from oil. He said that government’s campaign, launched in May, to increase non-oil revenue tax collection by 300 percent over the next six months would not generate significant income.

However, Manibe said the government’s collections in the last three months had increase fourfold.

“But we also will tax non-traditional sources that we had not used before now. These include areas that were once a jurisdiction of the government of Sudan, which have now come to us like the issuing of licences. This includes licensing, for example, telecommunications, licences for concessions in the field of oil exploration and development, and licences for mining,” he told IPS.

In May South Sudan secured a 100-million-dollar loan from the National Bank of Qatar to finance the import of essential goods and services including fuel, food and medicines. It is understood that the government is also in the process of securing another 100-million-dollar loan from Stanbic Bank and another 500-million-dollar loan from a yet an undisclosed source.

In April China agreed to give the new country a loan of eight billion dollars that South Sudan said would be used to fund South Sudan’s infrastructure development.

The exact terms of these deals have not been published, but it is understood that repayment will be tied to future oil revenues.

Kenyi said that instead of borrowing money, the government should have approached international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and donor countries with which it could reach bilateral arrangements for grants.

However, Kenyi warned that South Sudan’s emerging economy could suffer serious consequences if it started to rely on loans so early in its democracy.

“Any money obtained in grants should not be used luxuriously. It should be used only to provide essential services such as medical care to the ordinary people and to undertake development work,” said Kenyi.

A May 17 report by the campaign group, Global Witness, called on South Sudan to exercise caution and total transparency in pursuing oil-backed financing.

The group asked the government to publicise details of any loan agreement to prevent exploitative terms, corruption, and mismanagement from undermining immediate benefits.

Meanwhile, Grande says that the U.N. will do all it can to help those affected by food insecurity.

“We will reach people with food assistance as the lean season progresses and austerity bites deeper,” she said. “The U.N.’s World Food Programme will provide food aid to 2.7 million people out of 4.7 million people who need food aid this year,” Grande added.

Kenyi cautioned that humanitarian agencies could not shoulder the entire burden of taking care of South Sudan’s people.

“The U.N. and other aid agencies can only help refugees and internally displaced people. I do not believe that they will feed, cloth, and provide medical care for the whole population,” he said.

But he did not see many countries rushing forward to offer aid: “European countries have their own problems and it is unlikely that they will keep on donating money to NGOs to come and support the South Sudanese.”

(END)

As thousands of people flee the conflict in South Sudan’s northern border states, increasing numbers have also been forced to leave their homes and towns in search of affordable food.

The conflict in South Sudan has more than doubled the price of basic commodities, making it difficult for many here to afford. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

As tension between South Sudan and Sudan continues in the South Sudanese northern areas of Unity, Upper Nile, Northern and Western Bahr al Ghazal states, the conflict has more than doubled the price of basic commodities, making it difficult for many here to afford.

In the border town of Bentiu, the price of a 50-kilogramme sack of sorghum has increased from 10 dollars to 24, while a kilogramme of sugar has tripled from one to three dollars.

“A 20 litre jerry can of cooking oil rose from 20 to 40 dollars in the last two weeks,” said Simon Kenyi, a teacher in Bentiu.

“Traders who used to bring in these goods from Elobeid in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state are unable to do so now because the border is closed,” he added.

For the last month, traders who usually import foodstuffs from Southern Kordofan in Sudan have been victims of violence along the route to South Sudan. Many have stopped trying to cross the border altogether.

The rapid increase in prices of consumer goods has forced residents of Bentiu, which is the capital of Unity state, to flee to towns in South Sudan’s greater Equatoria region, where consumer goods imported from East Africa are in abundance and relatively cheaper. The southern states of Western, Central and Eastern Equatoria share borders with the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

“Many people here are moving their families to Juba and Yei, in Central Equatoria state, because they can no longer afford food,” Bonifacio Taban, a local journalist in Bentiu, said.

Fighting between South Sudan and Sudan took a turn on Apr. 10 when South Sudan occupied the disputed oil-producing town of Heglig, in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state. Both countries have laid claim to the town, which lies in a border area.

According to South Sudan’s Minister of Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the country occupied Heglig to stop Sudan’s military, the Sudan People’s Armed Forces or SAF, from continuing to launch ground and air attacks from the area.

The South Sudanese army, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), were ready to withdraw provided that international monitors were sent to Heglig and Sudan agreed to international arbitration to determine which country owns the area, he had said at the time.

However, after South Sudan’s withdrawal on Apr. 23, the country says that Sudan has continued attacks.

Unity State Governor Taban Deng Guy said this week that 75 people had died in aerial bombardments in his state in the last few months; it includes casualties in Bentiu town and other parts of the state.

In the same state, thousands of civilians have been displaced following ground clashes between the SPLA and the SAF, and aerial bombardments by the latter.

South Sudan’s Deputy Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Preparedness Sabrina Dario Okolong said that residents of Unity state are fleeing the aerial bombardments in the northern part of the state and were making their way south to Nhiakdiu, Mayendit, Leer, Koch and Guit counties in search of safety.

“We also have about 1,500 people who have been displaced from Pariang County (a county in Unity state that borders Heglig) and we have the United Nations agencies verifying 1,693 IDPs in Pariang and 303 IDPs in Panyang,” Okolong said. Panyang is an administrative unit comprised of a number of villages within Pariang County.

An aid worker, who did not want to be named, estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 people had become internally displaced in the state.

The death toll from the conflict is not known, however, the U.N. says after South Sudan withdrew from Heglig, 16 civilians were killed in air raids and ground attacks within Unity state alone.

Dozens of foreign traders from Kenya, Uganda, DRC, Ethiopia and Eritrea are fleeing Bentiu where, on Apr. 23, SAF warplanes bombed a market and a bridge killing four people and wounding four others.

Makosa Kabanga, a Congolese trader who arrived in Juba from Bentiu on Apr. 24, said he was scared to stay in Bentiu because of the air raids.

“We were five Congolese who left Bentiu for Juba late last week. We feared the fighting in Heglig. Although Bentiu was a bit far from it, it was too much for us,” he told IPS. “We feared that there was going to be bombing in Bentiu and that’s what happened after we left. We will only return to Bentiu when the fighting and bombing stops,” he said.

But in South Sudan’s capital city of Juba some commodities are not so easy to find. Fuel stations have run out of petrol and there are long queues of motorbikes and cars as people wait their turn to purchase the commodity, which has almost doubled in price since the fighting intensified.

“We used to buy a litre of petrol at one dollar but now it costs more than three dollars,” Moses Taban, a motorcycle taxi operator, said.

An oil dealer in Juba, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, said he believed that there is a shortage of petrol because the SPLA purchase large quantities of fuel from him recently.

“The SPLA bought hundreds of thousands of litres from us. It takes time to bring in more fuel from Kenya… that is why you are seeing a shortage,” he said.

It is late afternoon and a group of men and women begin to converge under the shade of a huge mango tree in Yambio town, the capital of South Sudan’s western Equatoria state. The group is not gathering for an ethnic, political or religious meeting. They are here to listen to the radio.

A Let’s Talk listening group in Madhol Village in South Sudan. Credit: James Amuda/NDI

More specifically, they are here to listen to a community-based civic education programme on their local community station called Let’s Talk. It targets communities, and their leaders, to help promote dialogue on South Sudan’s political transition to an independent and democratic country.

And it introduces listeners to civic topics ranging from South Sudan’s transitional legal framework to strategies for combating corruption, and protecting children’s and women’s rights.
The 30-minute programme first hit the airwaves in January 2007 and uses a magazine format that includes drama, group discussions, and interviews to get its message across.

“The drama is used as a teaser segment that weaves rather complex issues or topics into the lives of characters in a fictional South Sudanese town of Jedida in a manner that is simple, humorous and more palatable to the audience. It helps ensure that the audience is entertained and informed about the topic of the day, but on a lighter note with lots of humour,” said Rehema Siama, Sudan Radio Service’s (SRS) scriptwriter for the programme.

Let’s Talk was created through a partnership between the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and SRS. It is broadcast in English, Arabic, and the two local languages of Dinka and Nuer. The programme is aired on a host of community radio stations including Sudan Radio Service, Bakhita FM, Radio Emanue, Naath FM and Nhomlau FM.

Today’s broadcast is an old one about defining free and fair elections. However, it has sparked the listeners’ apprehensions about a leader’s responsibilities. In addition to the programme, the NDI organises “listening groups” of ordinary people who gather across the country to listen to the programme and discuss its topics and themes and the impact on their communities, just like the group in Yambio.

“The session is intended to encourage democracy. If you get people together and they are able to tolerate each other’s views we believe it encourages democratic principles. We believe, in this way, people will learn to dialogue rather than to use violence to sort out issues,” said James Amuda, a programme officer at NDI.

After the broadcast in Yambio, James Gbakilingba, a listener in the group, talks about his concerns about the right to express one’s political views.

“For me, it is important that we talk to the people about political parties. We need to inform them what the views and objectives of each party are. And we need to inform people that the law allows anybody to belong to a party of his choice,” he said.

South Sudan is considered one of the most under-developed places in the world. And given the country’s vastness and biting poverty, coupled with its low level of literacy, radio is the surest way to reach the population.

In a country as remote as South Sudan, where there are only a few paved roads and many places can only be reached by air, and the airwaves, this community radio programme has been a hit.

“I think the Let’s Talk programme played a very instrumental role in the processes that led to the signing of the transitional constitution last July,” said Amuda. “We, as an institution working for democracy and good governance in South Sudan, realised that the process went well, but we realised that there was a lack of information among many people in the country about what was going on with the review. So we thought that it was important to inform people about what was happening with the constitutional review process in South Sudan.”

The programme is also helping disseminate information on new laws such as the Child and Land Acts. It is helping citizens to understand their roles in an independent country, Amuda said.

NDI has partnered with Free Voice Media to produce a new series of Let’s Talk. Marvis Birungi, a journalist involved in editing the features segment of the new programme, said there is still a need to address the information gap about the processes of democracy.

During last year’s review of South Sudan’s Interim Transitional Constitution, the Let’s Talk programme producers interviewed members of the technical committee to explain the review process and the role of citizens in it.

“So this programme will create awareness about the transitional constitution. Listeners will get to know the contents of that document. In addition, we know that a permanent constitutional review commission for the permanent constitution has been appointed, but the public need to know how they will participate in the review process,” Amuda said.

The new series will be piloted before the end of this month on four community radio stations: Radio Emmanuel in Eastern Equatoria state, Good News Radio in Lakes state, Radio Jonglei in Jonglei state, and Bakhita Radio in Central Equatoria state.

It will include a feature story, a short drama, a discussion segment, and a long interview with an expert or somebody who is knowledgeable about the particular topic.

“We know at the moment that the constitution contradicts certain customary laws. For example, the constitution says a woman has the right to have all the wealth of her dead husband but customary laws contradict this. So we will find someone knowledgeable about the constitution and somebody from the community with a cultural perspective, and they will discuss these issues,” said Amuda, about the new programme.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

The communities living on the South Sudan-Sudan border may face genocide if the conflict between the two countries disputing control of oil reserves is not resolved.

Southern Sudanese soldiers from the armed faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. Credit: Peter Martell/IRIN

There have been recent clashes between the Sudanese army, Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states, as well as fighting between communities along the border. Southern Kordofan lies south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum and borders the war-ravaged region of Darfur to the west. Blue Nile state lies south east of Khartoum and borders Ethiopia to the east.

This comes as the communities in these oil states become progressively militarised with arms increasingly available to civilians, according to a report by a local non-governmental organisation.

“One day the communities on the border may end up either facing genocide or there may be a very heavy war as the governments in both countries do not value the lives of the people but the resources they are sitting on. These resources will undermine the value of the lives of human beings,” Edmund Yakani, the coordinator for the local NGO Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), told IPS.

“The governments in the two countries look at the border from the perspective of economic gains rather than from the perspective of the communities living here,” he added.

Yakani said the borders are important as the economic strength of the two countries is defined here. “If you talk about petroleum it is found here, at the border. That is why the (National Congress Party) NCP-led government in Khartoum is now saying that areas like Heglig, near Unity state, and Kaka, in Upper Nile state (where there is a high production of petroleum) are disputed areas,” he said.

About 85 percent of the oil produced in Sudan and South Sudan combined comes from South Sudan. Much of the oil produced in South Sudan comes from the border states of Bentiu and Upper Nile. However, there is also oil in Jonglei state, which is in the interior.

A CEPO report released on Sep. 17 found that the communities on the South Sudan-Sudan border are highly militarised and experience a lot of insecurity and violence. The report found that there was a “rapid flow of arms into the hands of the civil population” on the Sudanese side in order to instigate violence with those living across the border.

“On the South Sudanese side civilians have acquired guns, supposedly for self-defence against – what they see as – Khartoum aggression and invasion,” the report said.

This situation could eventually lead to a war.

“The South has displayed extraordinary restraint in the face of extreme aggression from Khartoum,” Eric Reeves, a Sudan analyst and researcher at Smith College in the United States, told IPS.

“It hasn’t responded with force despite continued bombing of its own territory that began almost a year ago last November, systematic assaults by military aircraft on Southern territory as well as the military seizure of Abyei; it has thus far avoided joining forces with the fighters in the Nuba Mountains of (South Kordofan) or in the Blue Nile. But this can only last for so long,” Reeves said.

If Khartoum’s assault on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border town of Kurmuk – the dominant stronghold of the SPLA-N – continues, the likelihood of a united front between disparate forces fighting Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir’s troops increases.

“Khartoum is moving with a full armoured brigade towards Karmuk, the capital of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N),” Reeves told IPS. “If that falls it’s going to signal a continuing guerilla warfare of the sort we are seeing in South Kordofan.”

“This is no ordinary guerilla warfare,” he added. “The men fighting (Khartoum) may not have as much equipment as the SAF, but they are highly motivated and too well trained to be easily defeated.”

“A senior official of the SPLM-N, told me that many Northern soldiers have no stomach for this fight. This has caused Khartoum’s generals to rely more on the use of artillery, tankfire and military aircraft – which is a great way to kill civilians but not a strategic way to dislodge a military (guerilla) force. So we are definitely looking at a protracted conflict,” Reeves told IPS.

“If South Sudan and the Nuba fighters link up with the SPLA-N military forces in Blue Nile and the rebels in Darfur, we will see a war stretching from the Chadian border to the Ethiopian border and potentially up the Eritrean border as well,” Reeves told IPS.

The CEPO report recommended an immediate demarcation of the border to “minimise settlement along the border line, save the lives of the communities, minimise displacement and violence along the border line.”

The conflict has also affected oil production as oil contractors move away from areas of violence. Currently 98 percent of South Sudan’s revenue comes from oil.

Undersecretary at South Sudan’s South Petroleum and Mining Ministry David Loro Gutbek told IPS that oil production in both Sudan and South Sudan has decreased in the border areas. “As of now our production in South Sudan has gone down from 85,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 60,000 bpd.”

The reduced production is in three oil well blocks in Unity state where most of the country’s oil is found. Production in Melut in Upper Nile, which is not affected by violence, continues as normal. “On the Sudanese side of this area of the border, oil production has reduced from 60,000 bpd to only 48,000 barrels,” Gutbek added.

Gutbek said that if production was normal, South Sudan would produce 300,000 bpd. He said amidst the violence it was not possible to provide security around the oil production areas and as a result “unknown people” were sabotaging the oil industry.

“They cut cables in the fields and these then need to be fixed, which slows down the work and lowers the quantities of oil produced per day,” he said.

Gutbek told IPS that if the violence continued the oil production would continue to decrease. However, he was hopeful that a solution would be found and the border area would be secured.

“Some measures will be taken by the two governments in Juba and Khartoum to ensure that nothing interferes with the quantities of oil produced along the border. A security committee comprising officials from both Sudan and South Sudan has agreed to monitor the situation and improve security along the border area,” he said.

Environmental economist and World Bank consultant on Private Sector Development in South Sudan, Spencer Kenyi told IPS that he believed the violence along the oil rich border would – as he put it – push South Sudan to develop its own oil infrastructure to avoid relying on Sudan. It had been a long-term plan of South Sudan, but the country may have to do this sooner than expected.

“Although violence is not a welcome thing, it is going to create some positive move in South Sudan where the government will think about setting up its own oil, facilities like pipelines and refineries,” he said.

South Sudan plans to build three refineries and has discussed as a 3,600 km pipeline from South Sudan to then Kenyan port of Lamu.

South Sudan currently pays what it calls exorbitant fees for the use of Sudan’s pipelines and support services. The bulk of the infrastructure that supports the oil industry is in Sudan. Sudan has three refineries located in Khartoum, Port Sudan, and El-Obeid. The Khartoum refinery was expanded in 2006 from a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day to 100,000 bpd. The Port Sudan facility is located near the Red Sea and has a refining capacity of 21,700 bpd.

“It will lead the government of South Sudan to refocus its strategy in the oil industry. They will speed up the idea of setting up transport systems for oil export from South Sudan in order to circumvent the violence that’s going on in the border areas,” Kenyi said.

He added that if the violence continued South Sudan may have to completely shut down the oil sector, though temporarily. “The government may close the oil sector completely for a certain period and focus on areas like livestock farming and agriculture as the biggest income earner for the economy,” he said.

He explained that this would in turn “break the back of the violent conflict arising out of the oil wealth along the border” and any subsequent efforts to demarcate the border will be much more amicable and peaceful.

*Kanya D’Almeida in Washington contributed to this report.

South Sudan is facing severe fuel shortages less than three weeks before it gains independence from the rest of the country. Many gas stations have shut down and those that remain open have people lining up overnight for fuel.

The shortage has affected all aspects of life. For the last two weeks many offices in oil-rich South Sudan’s capital, Juba, have closed or only opened for half the day because they could not find fuel to power generators.

The transport industry has also been affected. Moses Kenyi, a taxi operator, said he could not find petrol for his vehicle. “I have searched everywhere and I cannot find any. I would like to buy fuel however expensive it is so I can continue to operate my business. The problem is I cannot find it.”

The fuel shortage has led to an increase in pump prices. A litre of petrol used to cost 1.10 dollars but now costs as much as two dollars. On the black-market a litre of oil costs as much as 10 dollars.

Government officials, humanitarian workers and local media have blamed North Sudan for the fuel and food shortages, which began in May.

North Sudan’s government has denied it imposed any blockade on the south. While sources in the industry blame the fuel shortage on South Sudan’s failure to prioritise the supply of this essential commodity and a battle with suppliers over price controls.

Sudan’s oil, which is mostly found in the south, is being pumped by international oil companies including China National Petroleum Corporation, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad.

In mid-May government imposed a price limit for both diesel and petrol at about 1.90 dollars per litre.

Petroleum companies, which include Imatongas, Hass Petroleum, and Global Petroleum among others, have said this is unfair and means they will sell fuel at a loss. They have complained they are already paying inflated prices for fuel from their Kenyan suppliers and face heavy taxation to import it.

The petroleum companies import diesel, petrol and kerosene from Kenya, which is closer than North Sudan’s capital Khartoum. Though some petrol is imported from North Sudan.

Sources speaking on condition of anonymity, for fear of government reprisal, said suppliers had stopped importing fuel from East Africa and would not start again until government ended price controls.

David Loro Gubek, the Undersecretary in South Sudan’s ministry of energy and mining, said government would not give in to this threat.

“It is difficult for us to agree to that because all over the world the government has an upper hand to control prices,” he said.

“So I think the government is not in a position to allow them to be free to charge (high prices) because there is a government that is in charge and it must control (prices),” he added.

In addition, petroleum suppliers want South Sudan’s government to allocate them foreign exchange from the Bank of Southern Sudan, which has a good dollar exchange rate.

But the government refused the demand saying it lacked sufficient foreign currency.

Majak Arop Bilkuei, chairman of the South Sudan Petroleum Dealers’, said the high dollar rate was hurting fuel importers and affecting their profit margins.

“If I change money in the black market definitely it will be at a high cost. The (official) bank rate now is at 2.70 to 2.80 (Sudanese pounds to the dollar) in the black-market the range is 3.20 to 3.30 Sudanese pounds to the dollar,” he said.

Bilkuei added: “So if the government can do something about this issue this can keep the prices low and we operate without any problem.”

There are reports that some of the petroleum companies are stockpiling fuel until the price controls ended. But Bilkuei denied this.

He added that since government was not subsidising petroleum importers, the latter should be allowed to increase fuel prices.

“The market is free when nobody helps you in solving problems. If the government is not helping you and you are struggling alone to bring this fuel (into the country) you have a right to sell it (at a price of your choice),” he said.

“But if the government helps you to bring the fuel then the government can say; I helped you why do you increase the price?”

Reliable sources told IPS that the fuel shortage has been made worse because what little fuel that is being imported from East Africa and North Sudan is being bought and stored by South Sudan’s government in anticipation of a war with the north.

Observers say even if the current crisis ends, shortages like this could be a recurring problem if relations between North Sudan and South Sudan remain as bad as they are now.

But Gubek said government had long-term plans to prevent this, including building storage facilities.

Representatives of the petroleum importers are scheduled to meet with government officials to discuss the matter. Both were hopeful that a solution to the fuel shortage would be found.