Dane F. Smith, Jr. became our Executive Director in June 2020 after serving as the Interim Executive Director since October 2019.
In assuming the role of Executive Director, Smith outlined his vision of the mission of AFRECS:
AFRECS collaborates with the Episcopal churches of South Sudan and Sudan in the promotion of a peaceful and just society through expansion of the beloved community. Toward that goal
AFRECS facilitates expansion of the network of cooperation between Episcopal congregations in the United States, including the South Sudanese diaspora, and Episcopal clergy and laity in South Sudan and Sudan.
AFRECS expands its financial support for discrete programs of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, focusing on trauma healing and education for civil war victims.
AFRECS strengthens its relationship with the Episcopal Church of Sudan, focusing on education of pastors and laity.
An AFRECS Board member since 2016, Dane Smith has been a consultant and lecturer on international peacebuilding, with a recent focus on faith-inspired peacebuilding. He visited South Sudan for AFRECS in 2018 and both South Sudan and Sudan in early 2020. In 2014 and 2016 he was visiting professor at the Martin Luther King Jr. Evangelical University of Nicaragua, where he taught courses on “Christian Models of Peacebuilding.” In 2011 and 2012 he was Senior Advisor on Darfur in the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan. From 2006 through 2009 he was a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington D.C., where he authored U.S. Peacefare: Organizing American Peace-Building Operations. From 1999 to 2003, he served as President of the National Peace Corps Association, the alumni group for former U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers. He was US Ambassador to Guinea 1990-1993 and to Senegal 1996-1999. Between those assignments he served as Special Presidential Envoy to Liberia 1995-1996. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, 1986-1989. Dane and his wife Judy were Peace Corps Volunteers in Eritrea 1963-1965. He holds an A.B. from Harvard College and a PhD in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He has studied at the Union Theological Seminary in New York and is a lay preacher in the United Methodist Church. He and Judy have three children and seven grandchildren.
Sarah Cleto Rial, friend of AFRECS, announced as Governor of Western Bahr al Ghazal State
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – South Sudan President Salva Kiir issued a decree June 29 appointing governors for eight of the 10 states and chief administrators for the areas of Pibor, Ruweng and Abyei. Juba-based Sudd Institute analyst Augusting Tiing Mayay said,“Governors and administrators should immediately start managing their areas and play a major role in implementing the peace deal’s objectives of restoring peace and stability, especially in areas where inter-communal fighting has been raging for more than a month”.
Sarah Cleto Hassan, the sole woman among the eight state governors announced by President Salva Kiir, is known among the South Sudanese diaspora in North America as Sarah Cleto Rial, a resident of Salem, Massachusetts. Sarah was a leader at the August 2019 meeting in Lexington VA of the South Sudanese Diaspora Network for Reconciliation and Peace (SSDNRP).
NEWS NOTES
COVID-19 in South Sudan
At a Zoom meeting of the Anglican Alliance on July 1, Rev Joseph Bilal, Chair of Archbishop Justin Badi Arama’s COVID Task Force, summarized the situation. Two-thirds of SS is peaceful, with violence still in Equatoria, especially the Kajo Keji area, involving the army and opposition groups not signatory to the ARCSS Agreement, and in Unity State. Eight of the state governors have now been named. There is freedom of movement related to COVID, except for worship which is shut down. There have been 2,007 COVID-19 cases, with 47 recorded deaths and 251 recoveries. There is a severe lack of hospital facilities and extraordinarily little Personal Protective Equipment. South Sudanese culture tends to dismiss practices required by COVID, requiring enormous persistence. For example, failure to shake hands is interpreted as animosity. In response to a question about what was most needed, Joseph Bilal said their priorities were to promote awareness of safety precautions through expanded use of social media and radio talk shows, to acquire sanitizing equipment, and to obtain megaphones for non-radio promotion of coronavirus safety. They also need medicine, but he was not specific.
AFRECS has long sought to help the Episcopal Church of South Sudan to build its capacity and raise its voice for peace and healing in South Sudan, and the current COVIS-19 crisis raises an especially poignant call for our help in this regard. Recognizing that the ECSS is a trusted voice of truth and the public interest in South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama has formed a task force to respond to the crisis and raise public awareness. As Task Force Chair Rev. Dr. Joseph Bilal put it: “The church leadership and its congregation members; bishops, clergy, lay-readers, evangelists, youth, Mothers’ Union and faithful laity have an important role to play in raising awareness of the danger and threat of the pandemic and in promoting prevention measures by hand hygiene and social distancing.” The Task Force is mobilizing all levels of the church in this campaign, and our support will be vital in helping raise their collective voices, not only quite literally in the purchase of megaphones for rural churches, but also for radio broadcasts and the printing and distribution of educational materials.
Please join members of the AFRECS Board and other friends who have already committed support for the ECS COVID-19 Task Force. Checks can be marked “Task Force”, and designated online giving is also an option through the AFRECS website.
From Voice of AmericaSouth Sudan Focus What Is Causing South Sudan’s Inter-Communal Fighting? By Waakhe Simon Wudu June 24, 2020 (Summary)
JUBA , SOUTH SUDAN – Hundreds of people have been killed in inter-communal violence raging in South Sudan’s Jonglei state in recent weeks, and the cycle of attacks and revenge attacks is only going to continue if the national government fails to establish a rule of law that holds cattle raiders and other criminals accountable, according to one Juba-based analyst.
On Tuesday, President Salva Kiir issued a presidential decree forming a committee to resolve ongoing inter-communal violence involving the Dinka Bor, the Lou Nuer and Murle tribes in Greater Jonglei. In his decree, Kiir said he expects the panel to ensure that stability is restored in the area within the next 21 days. https://www.voanews.com/africa/south-sudan-focus/what-causing-south-sudans-inter-communal-fighting
From The New Humanitarian News, an independent non-profit news organization, which covers sub-Saharan Africa Return Pressure Builds as COVID-19 Hits South Sudan Displacement Camps By Joshua Craze & Naomi Pendle June 1, 2020 (Summary)
Confirmed cases of coronavirus in two of the six UN-protected Protection of Civilian (POC) camps in South Sudan have led to renewed calls for the 190,000 residents to return to their homes, despite safety concerns as new waves of violence grip the country. [Bishop John Gattek, founder of the orphan school which AFRECS supports in POC 3, reports that there have not been any cases among South Sudanese there.]
The UN’s peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, “strongly encouraged” residents in March to leave the overcrowded sites – a call repeated last month after two cases of the virus emerged in a camp in the capital, Juba.
UN police officers have withdrawn from the camps to protect themselves from COVID-19, while government security forces have intermittently blocked entry to some sites, ostensibly to stop the spread of the disease.
Calls for residents to leave the camps – both from the UN and the South Sudanese authorities – predate the coronavirus pandemic and have increased since the formation of a power-sharing unity government in February.
Since the UN police officers (UNPOL), who manage crime in the POCs, effectively stopped patrolling the sites on 16 May, additional security issues have been reported in some camps.
Interruptions to international travel and supply chains have also significantly impeded the ability of aid agencies to get both staff and medical resources into the camps. This puts many more people at risk as a host of other diseases are common in the POCs, including malaria, measles, and acute diarrhea.
The government’s hostility towards the camps is deep-rooted. Since winning military victories in major urban centres in mid-2014, sending people fleeing into UN bases, it has accused the sites of housing rebels, and pressed for them to be closed.
The mission has long complained that the sites use up too many resources, preventing UNMISS from fulfilling its mandate to protect civilians elsewhere in the country. One UN report in 2019 described the situation in the camps as “untenable” – citing communal tensions, the lack of economic opportunities, and social problems of crime and alcohol abuse.
Despite the formation of a transitional government in February, there is ongoing conflict in South Sudan that has left many POC residents worried about leaving.
Those who do want to leave the camps often have no home to return to, either in the towns or in rural areas. In Juba, many PoC dwellers have had their homes occupied by others, and it’s unclear if they will be able to get them back.
Please keep the people of South Sudan and Sudan in your prayers, as the pandemic further complicates their already very difficult existence. We urge you to reach out to individuals and families you are already connected with through email, WhatsApp and other social media. Please consider making a contribution to AFRECS, including the response to COVID-19. To do so click here. Meanwhile stay safe where you are in the United States.
REQUEST FROM A LEADER OF THE SOUTH SUDANESE DIASPORA NETWORK FOR RECONCILIATION AND PEACE
Dear reader,
I hope you are doing well and staying safe and healthy. My name is Sandra Tombe and I am a doctoral candidate at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Virginia.
I am reaching out to you to recruit participants in a survey that I am conducting for my dissertation project. My research looks at the relationship between political opposition groups and diaspora communities. I study these relations in the cases of South Sudan and Cameroon comparatively.
I am writing with regards to my South Sudan case. I would like to solicit the participation of individuals who meet all the following criteria:
those who identify as part of the South Sudanese diaspora,
who are currently based in the United States,
and who are, at minimum, 18 years old.
Would you consider participating if you meet the above criteria? My study has been approved by George Mason University. Participation is voluntary and anonymous, and all the information you provide will be used only for this research. The consent form, included in the link below, offers more details about my project and provides you instructions on how to proceed with the survey. You will need about 25-30 minutes to complete the survey. Please find the link to the survey below: https://gmu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6kQB1nl4QiIvIEd
For those of you who do not meet the criteria to participate or do not wish to participate, would you consider sharing the link with others in your network who may qualify or be interested in participating?
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this note. I appreciate your help by participating or by sharing the survey with others in your network.
Best,
Sandra
Sandra Tombe Doctoral Candidate | Graduate Instructor
School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
