Update from Dane Smith
Sudan Episcopal Bishops Hold Retreat
I received a welcome communication from Canon Musa Abujam, Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, whom I met for the first time during a visit in February (pre-COVID). He reported that Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo of the Province of Sudan had gathered all the bishops of its five dioceses, with their wives, for a retreat at the beginning of December. I gather it was a joyful and fruitful gathering, which permitted an extensive exchange of views.
Bishop Abdu Elnur Kodi of the Diocese of Port Sudan indicates that the situation in Port Sudan and Kasala has calmed down after violence in recent months between the Nuba and Beni Amer groups. There have also been reports that the Beja, the largest group in the area, have been discontented. Canon Musa said the area is now quiet, but there is still fear. He warned that the situation could deteriorate again, but that people were once again moving freely. He noted with pride that the Episcopal cathedral in Port Sudan had made it possible for those fearful of the earlier unrest to stay within the compound for weeks until they felt safe enough to return home.
In the Diocese of Wad Medani, in east central Sudan astride the Blue Nile, the population has been deeply affected by the unprecedented floods of 2020. Fortunately, the Episcopal Church has been able to offer help to affected Christians.
Canon Musa also noted that Suffragan Bishop Hassan Osman of the Kadugli Diocese says that the situation is calm in the town of Kadugli. However, people are suffering from the high inflation-induced cost of living, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sudan Removed from Religious Freedom Violators List
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced December 7 that Sudan (along with Uzbekistan) had been removed from the Special Watch List for violations of religious freedom. The action was “based on significant, concrete progress undertaken … over the past year. Their courageous reforms of their laws and practices stand as models for other nations to follow.” Sudanese Christians have been enjoying new freedom since the overthrow of the Bashir regime in 2019.
Executive Director
Three AFRECS Board Members Recall former Prime Minister of Sudan Sadiq al-Mahdi
Our old friend Sadiq al-Mahdi died of COVID-19 on November 26.. The only freely elected leader of Sudan, who had continued to play an important and often influential role in Sudanese politics. No one has the wasta to take his place.
- Thomas H. Staal, USAID Emergency Officer, Khartoum, following 1980s East Africa famine
Sadiq al-Mahdi was the only Prime Minister that I felt I had a personal equation with. It stemmed from a conversation we had at what must have been the 1988 Embassy July 4th reception. As I recall from the previous gatherings, he would arrive and go to the open space in the middle of the compound and accept and briefly respond to greetings without really engaging in conversations that other attendees tried to start. As I walked over to make my effort I recalled that someone had told me that he was an avid polo player. So, after exchanging pro forma greetings, I asked him if polo was still a popular sport in Khartoum. His face immediately lit up. He emphatically said “yes” and began telling me about it. He asked me if I played polo, and I said that I didn’t but I loved horses and would love to watch and begin to learn. He asked me if I had a horse. I told him about the two that two friends and I owned. I told him one was an Arabian-Thoroughbred Mix and the other was a former polo pony. He asked the pony’s name. When I told him it was Atrees, he laughed and exclaimed, “I know Atrees! He’s crazy!” We talked about Atrees and his eccentricities and had quite a bit to laugh about. He said he would like to introduce me to polo and suggested I give him a call so we could discuss it further. I didn’t take him up on that, but encountered him again some months later at the home of the people who owned and operated what was probably the only woman’s college in Sudan. He invited me to join him at a specific location and time. Before that date arrived, the military coup that brought the Islamist regime to power had occurred, and Sadiq was on the lam.
After Sadiq left the July 4 reception I had a lot of questions to answer from people who had been watching our exchange from a distance.
I know bad things happened on Sadiq’s watch to some southern civilian populations during the war with the SPLM/SPLA. But my gut tells me that those things didn’t happen because Sadiq wanted them to.
- Frederick E. Gilbert, former director, USAID Mission to Sudan
Sadiq al-Mahdi (SAM) loomed large over Sudan from the mid-1960s to his death at 84 last month in the United Arab Emirates, where he was being treated for COVID-19. Great grandson of Muhammad Ahmed, the Mahdi, who led the first Islamic revolt against British colonialism in the 19th century, Sadiq became Prime Minister in 1966 at age 35. He was head of the Umma Party, the political vehicle for the Ansar, the Sufi collective linked by allegiance to the Mahdi. His term lasted less than a year before defections in his own party led to his ouster. With degrees in politics from Oxford, Sadiq was well-spoken in both English and Arabic, an attractive figure for international leaders. Tall, powerfully built and athletic, he was a compelling personality.
After a public uprising led to the overthrow of military dictator Jaafar Nimeiry (1969-1985), the Umma Party won fair elections in 1986, when Sadiq again became Prime Minister. There were high expectations that he would end the civil war in the South, which had rekindled in 1983, and bring about economic reforms to put Sudan on the road to prosperity. He did neither. He spent his time in political maneuvering, seeking to arrive at coordinated positions supported by the opposition Democratic Unionist Party, led by Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani (MOM) and his brother-in-law Hassan al-Turabi (HAT), chief of the National Islamic Front. He feared that decisive action to end shar’ia (Islamic law – created by Nimeiri), essential to negotiating peace with John Garang’s Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), would lead to his ouster. Nevertheless, the period of his rule was one of free-wheeling democracy — freedom of the press, no political prisoners, and vigorous political debate. It was a pleasant and stimulating time to work in Sudan. Sadiq’s dithering, however, gave time for Turabi (HAT) to plot with elements of the army for the overthrow of his regime, which occurred at the end of June 1989, ten days before my assignment ended as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Khartoum. Sadiq was imprisoned along with other political leaders but soon released and continued to lead the greatly weakened Umma Party under Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s autocratic government.
During the 1986-89 period I had several meetings with Sadiq, sometimes accompanying Ambassador Norman Anderson, and sometimes on my own as Chargé d’Affaires. I remember particularly vividly a meeting when I received an instruction from Washington to meet urgently with the Prime Minister to inform him that the U.S. Government was “outraged” about statements that he had recently made supporting positions taken by Muamar al-Qadhafi of Libya. Sadiq took my demarche in stride without becoming angry, although he vigorously disputed the US position. He was always cordial. There was room for plenty of back-and-forth. Sadiq had the impressive habit of explaining his position by enunciating an eight or a ten-point plan precisely and without notes. The problem was that Sadiq’s plans never seemed to get enacted. A popular nickname for him was Abu Kalaam, “father of talk.” In the US Embassy we sometimes said that Sadiq made decisions but no conveyor belt was ever created to implement them.
In 2011 I returned to Sudan as Senior Advisor to the US Government on Darfur. I was astonished to find that beneath the surface of the widely detested Bashir regime, party politics were continuing little changed from the 1980s. SAM, MOM and HAT were still running their political movements 22 years later. MOM’s party had actually joined the regime. I met Sadiq several times at his home in Omdurman, sometimes attended by his daughter Miriam, who has inherited his leadership of the Umma Party. He welcomed me and responded readily to my questions about national leadership, conflict in Sudan, including in Darfur, and Sudan’s role in the region. His mind was sharp. He was vigorous and still playing tennis. I considered him a friend and enjoyed that special hospitality for which the Sudanese are famous.
Sadiq’s death comes during a period of transformation in Sudan. Turabi died in 2016. MOM survives them both, but is rarely heard from. The overthrow of Bashir in 2019 and the creation of an interim regime headed by a military Sovereignty Council and a civilian prime minster has brought new leaders to the fore in place of the Nile Valley Tribes (Ja’iliin, Shaigiya, Danagla) which have dominated the politics of Sudan since independence in 1956. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is from Kordofan; Sovereignty Council Deputy Chair Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) is from Darfur; Gen. Shams al-Din Khabbashi of the Sovereignty Council is from southern Kordofan. Whatever happens during this fragile transition, the vast diversity of Sudan is much more likely to be represented at the political table than in the past. SAM will be remembered fondly by many of us, not least for his enduring commitment to democracy, but not because of his flawed political leadership of his country.
- Dane F. Smith, Jr., Retired U.S. Ambassador to Guinea and Senegal, Deputy Chief of Mission in Sudan, 1986-89
The POC3 School in Juba is back in full swing! Students are happy to be back in class.
NEWS
South Sudan Economic News
On November 11, 2020, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund approved for South Sudan a Rapid Credit Facility drawdown of about U.S. $62,300,000 (36,900,000 in Special Drawing Rights SDR). The loan will aid the government’s balance of payments situation and spending requirements.
The government urgently needs assistance to address the current national crisis resulting from various factors including armed conflict, floods, and a weak economy. Floods and recurring droughts, exacerbated by the climate crisis, have devastated the country’s food production capability. Save the Children, an international charitable NGO, has stated that the country faces the threat of famine, with 300,000 South Sudanese children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The country also deals with grave health threats, such as HIV/AIDS, which affects nearly 200,000 South Sudanese.
Sources: Sudan Post, Sudan Tribune, African Arguments, Eye Radio
Peace in South Sudan is Still Elusive
As reported December 1st by the Associated Press, United Nations experts stated that the peace efforts in South Sudan have stalled. The coalition government formed in February has not met established deadlines, and Vice-President Riek Machar, the former opposition leader, is kept “out of the decision-making process.” A unified military organization has not been established. The panel that monitors sanctions against the country has recommended to the U.N. Security Council that the arms embargo be maintained and more effectively implemented. The international organization Amnesty International has also called for the continuation of the arms embargo in view of reported instances of violence.
In the meantime, on December 1st, first Vice-President Riek Machar addressed the conference of his political party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), declaring that peace is the only way for the country to achieve stability, and that his party Is committed to the pursuit of peace.
Sources: Associated Press, BBC Ne
BOOK REVIEW
A Rope from the Sky: The Making and Unmaking of the World’s Newest State, by Zach Vertin
Reviewed by Jonathan Harris, Diocese of Southwestern Virginia
As one who has long observed – however casually – the journey of the people of South Sudan, this book was incredibly helpful in putting together the pieces of their story and the current crisis. It is very well written and presented in an engaging manner by a former US diplomat with 8 years of hands-on experience in South Sudan. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in South Sudan. I listened to the audio book, with an excellent reader in Chris Ciulla.
The book helped me understand what has been and is going on in South Sudan and why. Many of us were so excited for South Sudan to achieve independence in 2011 but then crestfallen to witness the slaughter and mayhem which ensued just two years later and continues to this day. The South Sudanese rose up together to achieve liberation and independence in 2011 — only to turn on each other. Vertin unpacks this juxtaposition for us.
Would it have made a difference if their iconic and visionary leader John Garang hadn’t died tragically in a helicopter crash in 2005? Could he have led them to unity? Were the differences and past tensions between Dinka and Nuer just too much to overcome for any leader? Would it have made a difference if Salva Kiir – considered to lack political acumen – had stepped down in 2011 and just accepted the laurels of independence? Could Kiir and Riek Machar have been able to rise above hardliners advising them in their respective tribes? Did the trappings of power so insulate Kiir, Machar, and other top South Sudanese leaders that they could not speak up for their ordinary citizens? Was the prospect of creating a new nation overnight just more than could be done, when many were illiterate with little to no experience with a governing body, let alone a participatory democracy? With so much desperation, government officials can’t help but succumb to the needs of their extended family, thus proliferating nepotism and corruption. To move from decades of brutal war to free nation – essentially overnight – is a tall order indeed.
Editors’. Note: The author, Zack Vertin, worked in South Sudan with Crisis Group and later as an aide to U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, the late Princeton Lyman.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
Our supporters have continued to propel AFRECS so that we can expand our impact on the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. We hope you will consider another generous gift — or whatever you can afford in this COVID year — as the year ends. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.
Board members Gwinneth Clarkson, Caroline Klam, and Steven Miles contributed to editing this issue.