Update from Dane Smith 
POC Camps Become Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps
Protection of Civilian (POC) camps developed suddenly and spontaneously with the 2013 outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, when terrified populations rushed to the bases where UNMISS troops were stationed to seek protection. In the emergency the United Nations decided to open the gates of these bases so that thousands of people could receive temporary shelter. Camps developed in places such as Bor, Bentiu, Malakal, and outside Juba. Temporary arrangements evolved into semi-permanence. These settlements, within the periphery of UN bases, were different legally and structurally from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps like those set up in Darfur in western Sudan a decade earlier. Neither the UN nor the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) was pleased with the arrangement. For the UN, the necessity to protect populations within the static confines of the camp diverted UNMISS from its wider peacekeeping functions; for the GOSS UN control of these civilian locations derogated from its sovereignty.
Last November both parties agreed to redesignate the POCs as IDP camps. The GOSS took over the UNMISS administrator’s roles and responsibilities in implementing the protection mandate. Dynamic (roving) patrol duties are now shared by South Sudan police services and UNPOL, the UN military police. Civilian leaders in the newly designated IDP camps have expressed concern that their security could be endangered under the new arrangement, but it is too early to assess that danger. In the former POC3 camp near Juba, which houses the Orphan School run by Episcopal Bishop John Gattek and financed largely by AFRECS, the security situation appears so far unchanged.
Some Positive News
In January, the GOSS took two important steps toward implementation of the 2018 R/ARCSS peace agreement. After a ten-month delay, the appointment of a governor and deputy governor for Upper Nile state finalized the slate of governors for South Sudan’s ten states. Disagreement between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar over the candidate was finally overcome. The appointment permits the executive arm of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity to deploy fully. The second step was Cabinet approval of creation of the Hybrid Court. Article 5 of the R/ARCSS stipulates that a Hybrid Court for South Sudan shall be established by the African Union “to investigate and where necessary prosecute” individuals responsible for violations of international and South Sudanese law, including crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of gender-based violence. A hybrid court includes both national and international judges. No details on the new South Sudanese institution have yet emerged. Key elements of the agreement remain unrealized, in particular, creation of the legislative assembly and – the most challenging – reform and reintegration of the security forces.
US Special Envoys Still at Work
As of press time Amb. Don Booth and Amb. Stuart Symington, Special US Envoys to Sudan and South Sudan respectively, were still hard at work, two weeks after the Biden Administration assumed office. When I spoke to Symington at the end of January, he was in Nairobi for meetings with Kenyan leaders and was heading for Rome for additional sessions between the Sant’ Egidio peacebuilding organization and the non-signatories of the R/ARCSS, Gen. Thomas Cirillo and Shilluk leader Pagan Amum. Don Booth was then in Khartoum. The two professional diplomats remain in place, pending the naming of a new Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Amb. Tibor Nagy, the previous Assistant Secretary, who met with South Sudan Episcopal Primate (Archbishop) Justin Badi Arama in 2019, stepped down the day of the transition.
Executive Director
World Mission Sunday – February 14 – Video Available: Savings Circles, Literacy, and Peacemaking in Renk
AFRECS supports the microfinance and peacemaking training provided by Five Talents at the invitation of Joseph Garang Atem, Bishop of the Diocese of Renk in Upper Nile. A new video offers glimpses of the women’s circles under a tree for prayer, savings, and small-business ventures, plus military and civilian personnel attending an indoor class on peacemaking. Prepared by David Chaves, communications manager for Five Talents in Vienna, Virginia, this two-minute film concludes with a message from Bishop Garang: “God is still working, and the Church is still working.” The video is recommended for use in congregations on Mission Sunday, February 14: https://vimeo.com/507607703 For details: davidchaves@fivetalents.org tel. 703-242-6016.
Other News from Various Sources
From The New Humanitarian 01/21/2021
Old grudges and empty coffers: South Sudan’s precarious peace process
Abstract from an article by Sam Mednick
(Jok Solomun/REUTERS)
On the streets of South Sudan’s capital city, billboards honor the country’s politicians for ending five years of conflict that cost almost 400,000 lives and displaced millions. But nearly a year after President Salva Kiir formed a unity government with opposition leader Riek Machar – now the vice-president – key parts of the agreement have not been implemented amid entrenched distrust between the two men, funding shortages, and renewed fighting that cost thousands of lives in 2020.
Many South Sudanese who spoke to TNH on a visit to the country in December questioned the political will for peace, while analysts fear disenchantment within Machar’s camp over the slow progress could soon fuel new outbreaks of violence.
Insufficient funding for the agreement is further complicating efforts. Dozens of mostly opposition troops have starved to death in cantonment and training sites as they wait to join a new national army, while peace deal officials in Juba have been chased from hotels because the government isn’t paying their bills – $10 million is owed to nine hotels.
As the agreement stagnates, a humanitarian crisis is worsening. Deadly violence, torrential rains, and a contracting economy have left more than 100,000 people facing “phase five” catastrophic levels of hunger, and tens of thousands experiencing likely famine conditions, according to a November report published by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Machar and Kiir shook hands and hugged last year when they agreed to work together. But trust runs thin between the old foes who have been squabbling over appointments for political positions – leaving most state and county posts unfilled and a new parliament yet to be established.
Many South Sudanese blame both men for the enduring crisis. A recently published report from the country’s National Dialogue Steering Committee, an initiative that gathered the views of tens of thousands of ordinary people, called for the two politicians to resign ahead of elections scheduled for 2023.
“They have… created an unbreakable political deadlock in the country, and they no longer have the political will or moral leadership capacity to move beyond personal grudges and egos,” the report stated.
Speaking to TNH via WhatsApp, Stephen Par Kuol, secretary general for the National Transition Committee, the government body in charge of implementing the peace deal, blamed financial problems for the implementation challenges. Falling oil prices – South Sudan’s main revenue source – and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic have left the government with “no funds as things stand now”, Kuol said.
Little has been done, meanwhile, to unify soldiers who fought each other for years. In Pibor, government army commander Korok Nyal said 150 soldiers from the ethnic Murle group left a training site in nearby Bor town out of concern they would be targeted by troops from other ethnic groups. In the southern state of Central Equatoria, another commander told TNH his men have no contact at all with opposition soldiers.
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2021/01/21/south-sudan-peace-deal-violence-famine
The Voice of America 01/25/2021
South Sudanese Still Face Threat from Unexploded Mines, Munitions
by Waakhe Simon Wudu
Many South Sudanese have been returning home to farm the land and live their lives after United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) workers spent years clearing huge portions of the country that were littered with unexploded ordnance. Still, officials warn the work is far from over.
In December, U.N. mine-clearing workers detonated unexploded ordnance in Amee, a village located 135 kilometers southeast of Juba, but civilians still come across unexploded devices.
Okolo Joseph, a resident of Lokiliri Payam in Central Equatorial state, said his son, James Wani, 6, was maimed by a landmine last April while playing with other children, who found an unidentified object on the ground. He tried to throw the object away and it exploded.
Among the unexploded ordnance U.N. landmine workers have discovered, removed, and detonated are Russian-made cluster munitions. The were dropped by the thousands across parts of South Sudan during the 21-year civil war between the Khartoum government and Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Charles Tombe, 35, who fled Amee village during the SPLA-Khartoum conflict, returned home in 2011, has been farming ever since. Tombe said, “The places they have cleared help us. They give us freedom whether working or walking. It helps us a lot. And places they have marked as dangerous help and prevent us from encroaching them, because we already know they are dangerous.”
Since 2001, 1,404 people across South Sudan have been killed by unexploded ammunitions; more than 3,700 others were injured by the devices, according to UNMAS.
https://www.voanews.com/episode/south-sudan-focus-4555976
Radio Tamazuj 01/22/2021
Returning refugee numbers dwindle as they decry mistreatment at borders
More than 4,000 refugee returnees have returned to South Sudan between December and now from neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and South Sudan’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC).
The UN Refugee Agency, in a statement yesterday said, 4,036 South Sudanese refugee returnees were verified to have entered South Sudan in December and early this year, a marked reduction of spontaneous or voluntary returnees from 7,981 reported in November 2020. 
Returning refugees, according to UNHCR and RRC, reported cases of extortion, arrest, and harassment by authorities at Nadapal and Nimule, border points with Kenya and Uganda.
“Fighting between SPLA-IO and SPLA-IG in Kajo Keji is leading to the interruption of spontaneous refugee returns. Lack of shelter in host communities as they await the dry season to construct their shelter and limited capacity by authorities to respond to COVID-19 positive cases among whom are spontaneous refugees at Nimule border point are influencing movement,” the refugee agency added.
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/returning-refugee-numbers-dwindle-as-they-decry-mistreatment-at-borders
Sudans Post 02/05/2021
South Sudan is now the most corrupt country on earth – Transparency International
An annual report by the German-based non-profit organization, Transparency International, has ranked South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, as the most corrupt country in the world bypassing Somalia, Syria, and Yemen which were the most corrupt countries in 2019.
https://www.sudanspost.com/south-sudan-is-now-the-most-corrupt-country-on-earth-transparency-international/
UN News – 02/02/2021; The East African – 02/01/2021
Next Steps Towards Hybrid African Union-South Sudan Court
The Cabinet of the President of South Sudan on February 1 took one more cautious step towards honoring human rights while preserving national sovereignty, as required by the 2018 peace agreement between two dominant factions in their seven-year struggle. “Now,” said Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the Commission on Human Rights in Sudan, “the government must reconstitute the Transitional National Legislative Assembly to legislate for the three agreed mechanisms: “the Hybrid Court to prosecute human rights violations; the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing; and the Compensation and Reparation Authority to administer a fund for victims.”
“The Government should now take immediate steps to sign the agreement with the African Union and adopt the draft Statute creating the Hybrid Court”, said Commissioner Barney Afako. The absence of accountability and reparation, including sexual violence, according to Commissioner Andrew Clapham, “undermines the fabric of society and breeds resentment.”
The Commission on Human Rights was established by the United Nations Council on Human Rights in March 2016, but its members are not UN staff nor paid by the UN.
Peace monitors from the African Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, for their part, pointed on January 29 to the failure of the Presidency and commanders to implement Chapter II of the peace agreement, which requires 83,000 troops to be integrated into one professional army. The training that started in 2020 has been adjourned several times. Some soldiers have abandoned the training centers for lack of food, shelter, and separate facilities for women. The monitors urge the Presidency to “provide adequate food, accelerate graduation of the unified national force, and publish their redeployment plan.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1083492
https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/unification-of-forces-in-south-sudan-3276048
Remember your favorite Valentine with a gift of love and life to our friends in the Sudans
We are grateful that you our supporters have continued to propel AFRECS in expanding our impact on the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. We hope you will consider continuing your generosity with a gift in honor of a friend or loved one on Valentine’s Day. Your contribution makes a difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Sudan. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.
This issue of the AFRECS E-Blast was compiled by Board members Caroline Klam and Richard Jones.