WASHINGTON, DC
AFRECS releases its 2020 Annual Report featuring stories, updates, and reports from its work over the previous year. Read more about AFRECS’ partnerships and the inspiring ministries in Sudan and South Sudan. Click here to read the AFRECS Annual Report.
Update from Dane Smith
On May 16 12 civilians were killed in Abyei, the special administrative area on the border between Sudan and South Sudan. The Government of South Sudan has accused Sudan of assisting the Misseriya Arab militia in the violence. The incident sparked a sharp rebuke from the Episcopal Primate, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, who told the BBC, “I strongly condemn such barbaric attacks and call for an end to this senseless violence by the Misseriya tribe against the innocent Dink Ng’ok people.”
A troubling report from WHO indicates that the Government of South Sudan will give back COVAX 72,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine before their upcoming expiration date. The vaccine rollout has been complicated by the hesitation of health care workers to get vaccinated, a lag in training vaccinators, and the delay of Parliament in approving vaccine use.
Meanwhile, President Salva Kiir has initiated a key step in implementing the 2018 peace agreement (R/ARCSS). He presided over a ceremony to begin drafting a new constitution, attended by representatives of the African Union, the UN, and Western donors. He also commented archly that implementation of the R/ARCSS is very difficult, particularly the unification of the armed forces, because the UN embargo on arms sales to South Sudan has led to the absence of “proper arsenals” for the new army. (A UN official commented at the time that South Sudan was awash in weapons.) Cantonment of forces from the militias covered by the agreement has practically collapsed because of lack of food and organization. This past week the UN Security Council extended the arms embargo against South Sudan by a vote of 13-0 with two abstentions.
French President Macron presided over a major conference on Sudan in mid-May. IMF member countries agreed to clear Sudan’s arrears to the institution, eliminating a final obstacle to wider relief on Sudan’s external debt of at least $50 billion. The World Bank subsequently announced new credits amounting to $2 billion, raising hopes that an early flow of funds will provide relief to a population beset by inflation and food shortages.
Jerome Tubiana, perhaps the leading Western expert on Darfur and Chad — and a former colleague of mine — has written in Foreign Affairs that the violence in Darfur, which had calmed after 2010, has taken sharp turn for the worse in 2021. The revolution in Sudan which overthrew President Bashir induced non-Arab Darfuris to agitate for the return of their homelands and the eviction of Arab settlers who had usurped them. That led in turn to Arab attacks on displaced persons camps in West Darfur where Masalit were the majority. Since then, the Masalit have armed themselves and have been imposing heavy casualties on the Arabs. The Transitional Government in Khartoum appears unable to deal with Darfur, in part because Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), a former Janjaweed leader and now commander of the Rapid Support Forces, is a member of the Sovereignty Council.
Best,
Some Background to AFRECS’ Work in Trauma Healing
By Dane Smith, Executive Director, AFRECS
Since 2019 AFRECS has been partnering with the faith-based organization Five Talents to introduce trauma healing instruction into the activities of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. Trauma can be defined as an emotional response to a terrible event like domestic violence, sexual abuse of children, rape, a war massacre, a natural disaster, or an accident. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, aggressive actions or emotional numbness, strained relationships and physical symptoms like headaches, nausea, back pain, and chronic fatigue. The South Sudanese people have been in a situation of collective trauma for most of three generations. It began with the resistance war against Northern control which started in the late 1950s. It intensified with the renewal of civil war in the early 1980s. Then, after independence in 2011, it exploded with the civil conflict which broke out in 2013. Terrible events faced by South Sudanese have included bombing of villages, massacres of civilians, and more recently, lethal tribal vendettas and massive rape of women and girls.
Trauma healing efforts began in South Sudan about a decade ago through the programs of the United Nations and some bilateral donors like the United States. Only in the past few years have such activities been taken up by the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. With the encouragement of Bishop Joseph Garang Atem of the Diocese of Renk (newly consecrated as Archbishop of Upper Nile), Five Talents organized separate groups of male youth and women in and around Renk to undertake small business activities. These savings groups began meeting regularly to receive training in literacy, numeracy, and microfinance, while mobilizing very modest levels of savings for small business activity. Into that mix of training Five Talents and AFRECS introduced trauma mitigation presented by two skilled trainers, Amer Deng Ayom and Ajak John Manyang, who traveled to Rwanda in 2019 to complete a special curriculum. The program trained 319 participants in 2019 and 235 in 2020, when COVID paused the training for several months. The program is expected to expand from Upper Nile to Central Equatoria later this year.
Where does this attention to trauma come from? Trauma as a product of war was largely ignored by the U.S. military in the aftermath of both World War I and World War II, despite its substantial costs to individuals. It first received systematic attention in the US as a result of the experience of Vietnam veterans and, more recently, to deal with the impact of sexual abuse on children. Internationally in the past 25 years there has been a focus on trauma in places like South Africa, where the Truth and Reconciliation Commission attracted much attention, and in Rwanda, where community courts called gacaca tried genocide perpetrators, while promoting reconciliation.
Bessel Van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, currently a New York Times best-seller — and a captivating read — provides enormous insight into the trauma process and into modes of healing. In the 1990s much attention was given to the use of medications, particularly Prozac and Zoloft, as well as tranquilizers like Valium. However, drugs cannot “cure” trauma. They only help to control feelings and behavior. In fact, they may inhibit healing by blocking the systems that regulate engagement and motivation. Trauma changes the brain, making the victim hypervigilant, while continuously repeating self-defeating behaviors, incapable of talking coherently about the story behind the trauma, and unable to learn from experience. Continued secretions of stress hormones generate feelings of agitation and panic. Van der Kolk writes,
Trauma robs you of the feeling that you are in charge of yourself…. The challenge
of recovery is to reestablish ownership of your body and your mind — of yourself.”
The victim must “reestablish executive functioning.” Activities which may assist in the process of recovery include a focus on breathing, yoga exercises and meditation, massage, and touch, chanting and dance, and active involvement in a group, such as a religious or trade association. Ultimately the traumatized person needs to recover her/his story. “If you’ve been hurt, you need to acknowledge and name what has happened to you.” That can happen in a group focused on a common enterprise, particularly if the process is facilitated by other supportive activities.
That is what we believe has been going on in our trauma mitigation activities in Renk, which is now relatively calm, but where women and young men have had extensive exposure to inter-tribal attack, murder of family members and episodes of massive sexual assault. Growth of trust within these small groups facilitates the sharing of trauma stories and ultimate healing.
News and Notes
ALERT!!! Beginning with our next issue, our publication date will be Thursday rather than Tuesday. So look for the E-Blast on Thursday, June 17 and every other Thursday after that.
Hard Won Day
By Anita Sanborn, AFRECS Board Member
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| Anita Sanborn, AFRECS Board Member and David Mayen LLM at his graduation | Pagan Amun and David Mayen LLM at his graduation. |
What does one do when you can no longer return to your country of origin, the country whose independence you fought for and where you served faithfully until your ethics and moral code forced you to speak out thus endangering your life and those of your family? Even under the real potential of becoming a man without a country, one asylum seeker made the most of the past two years.
David Mayen is a former South Sudanese government official who became an outspoken critic of the Kiir regime. Several years ago, his life was threatened, and he saw that others, including journalists and leaders in civil society were being disappeared or imprisoned. He made the difficult decision to publicly resign his position and once in the United States he applied for asylum. David arrived in Denver, CO where he had relatives, friends, and academic colleagues. (He had earned a Master’s Degree in International Security from the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver (DU)some years earlier.) His court case is still ongoing due to delays in hearings being postponed due to the Corona virus pandemic.
Nevertheless, he determined to acquire the credentials to improve his chances of earning a living and supporting his family, who remain in Africa. He was admitted to the Sturm College of Law at DU. With the help of AFRECS friends and advisers, Buck Blanchard and Ken Scott, David earned his Master of Laws in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy and was awarded Outstanding Graduate in his program This is an accomplishment which speaks to personal sacrifice, dedication to family and unwavering desire to contribute.
With limited opportunities for work until his case is settled, we ask for your prayers for the successful outcome of his application for asylum and for his wife and children who have been separated from him for many years now. Thank you to the many American friends associated with AFRECS who continue to advocate for David.
Wrestling for Peace in South Sudan
Report from the African Center for Strategic Studies
AFRICA South Sudan, young people are using sports to build peace and mutual trust among warring tribes engaged in cattle rustling. For decades, South Sudan has been ravaged by political conflicts as well as intercommunal violence related to cattle rustling and abduction of women and children. Through the Wrestling for Peace Initiative, South Sudan Wrestling Entertainment— a local organization founded and led by young South Sudanese—is using the indigenous sport of wrestling to promote peaceful coexistence across South Sudan’s many tribes, especially in restive Jonglei, Lakes, Eastern and Central Equatoria States. A short documentary by VICE Sports shows the impact of this initiative in promoting peace at grassroots levels. The initiative mobilizes wrestlers from cattle camps and brings them to Juba for a month-long competition. Aside from the tournament itself, side-meetings are organized between youth leaders and chiefs from different communities. The spectators who come to watch the matches are charged ticket prices, which helps fund the initiative. Through engagement in this program, the youth from rival communities have forged long-lasting relationships that have contributed to conflict resolution and management at the local level.
Other News from Various Sources
From the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect: Atrocity Alert – 05262021
BBC South Sudan – 05202021
Al-Arabiya – 05232021
Sudan Tribune – 05252021
Eye Radio – 05212021
Radio Tamazuj – 05252021
Attacks on aid workers and food assets in South Sudan
Despite the 2018 Peace Agreement and the formation of a Transitional Government of National Unity, for the past year South Sudan has experienced a steady escalation in violence, including localized conflicts and civilian killings. In recent weeks there has also been an increase in attacks targeting humanitarian workers and assets.
In January, an aid worker with Joint Aid Management (JAM) was shot dead near Bentiu, which is also in Unity state.
On May 12, a humanitarian worker was killed in Budi in Eastern Equatoria when gunmen ambushed a clearly marked humanitarian vehicle on the road from Chukudum to Kapoeta in Budi County.
On May 21, Louis Edward Saleh Ufew, a South Sudanese doctor working for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), was killed at a health facility in Ganyliel village, Unity State. In response, the IRC has suspended its operations in South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity State.
During April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported separate incidents in Torit, Eastern Equatoria, where youths physically assaulted staff from a UN agency and an NGO. The IRC also reported an attack on 24 April in the Ruweng Administrative Area, during which youths entered their compound and physically attacked staff.
On May 20, UNICEF says reports confirm that since violence started on 7 May in Pibor more than 2,000 cartons of Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food have been looted. According to UNICEF South Sudan Representative, Hamida Lasseko, the life-saving food is enough to treat 2, 000 children with severe acute malnutrition.
The World Food Program (WFP) reports, “Some 550 metric tons of food, enough to feed 33,000 food-insecure people for one month, were looted or destroyed in Gumuruk in Greater Jonglei in the first two weeks of May during the latest bout of violence. The food included cereals, pulses, cooking oil, and nutrition supplements for the treatment and prevention of malnutrition in children and women.”
https://www.globalr2p.org/
https://www.bbc.com/news/
https://english.alarabiya.net/
https://www.sudantribune.com/
https://eyeradio.org/unicef-
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/
From Radio Tamazuj – 05/21 and 23/2021
Schools facing issues as classes resume after COVID closures
The boarding section of a secondary school in Hiyalla Payam of Torit County in Eastern Equatoria State has been closed due to lack of a feeding program, an insufficient number of teachers, and insecurity in the area. The school has now been forced to operate as a day school and is unable to accept students from outside the local area. Alfred Ajayo, the Headmaster, told Radio Tamazuj that the school cannot manage students in the boarding section. “It is feeding that made the school collapse as a boarding. A few students succeeded in collecting food for themselves, but currently, we don’t have any food for the,” Ajayo said. He lamented that besides lack of food and shortage of furniture, many teachers have deserted their jobs at the school due to insecurity.
In Warrap State, adolescent girls at Kuajok Girls’ Primary School say they lack sanitary towels which makes them face challenges during learning. Many adolescent girls in South Sudan drop out and fail to complete their education because they do not have access to sanitary pads. In additions, the girls report that there is a shortage of face masks. The Headteacher of Kuajok Girls’ Primary school, Adior Salvatore Athian, said that feminine hygiene and sanitation in the school has been a challenge since the reopening of schools.
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/
Eye Radio – 05272021
Activist urges government to consider the growing intercommunal violence as a national crisis
Edmond Yakani, who is the executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization or CEPO, is calling on the unity government to declare the inter-communal conflicts across the country as a national crisis.
There has been a surge in inter-communal and cattle-related killings across the country particularly in the Bar el Ghazal region. Between 11th and 18th this month, Eye Radio recorded at least forty-two people killed across South Sudan. Most of these deaths are related to communal clashes, road ambushes, and banditries. The killings happened in Lakes, Central, and Eastern and Western Equatoria states, and Ruweng Administrative Area.
https://eyeradio.org/govt-
From Radio Tamazuj – 05232021
7 people killed; 200 cows raided in Ayod County
At least 7 people were killed, 4 others injured and about 2000 herd of cattle raided during an attack by a group of armed men on the southern outskirts of Jonglei State’s Ayod town on Wednesday, a local official said. Speaking to Radio Tamazuj over the weekend, James Chuol Jiek, the Ayod County commissioner, said: “Gul cattle camp in Pagoung Payam was attacked by suspected cattle raiders on Wednesday morning. In the clashes, we lost 5 youth while 4 others were injured. And from the side of the attackers, 2 people were killed.”
He added, “The attackers went away with about 5800 cows, but our local youth managed to recover 3800 cows, so only 2000 are still missing.” The county official blamed the attack on suspected cattle raiders from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) and called on his counterparts there to intervene.
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
We are grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in 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 time of COVID — to continue our vital work. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302
Please Note: AFRECS’ former address c/o Virginia Theological Seminary is no longer valid.
This issue of the AFRECS E-Blast was compiled by Board member Caroline Klam.
Update from Dane Smith
This past weekend brought the joyful news of the consecration of our good friend the Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Garang Atem as Archbishop of Upper Nile. He has been Bishop of Renk since 2007, where he has expanded church-based schooling, encouraged sorghum planting, and mobilized, with the Mothers Union and Five Talents, savings groups of women and male youth. AFRECS is partnering with both organizations to provide trauma healing training in Renk. Archbishop Joseph holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Seabury Western Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, from which he has also received an honorary doctorate.
The Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Garang Atem newly consecrated as Archbishop of Upper Nile.
For the present, he will also remain Bishop of Renk. The Diocese of Renk has had since 2001 a companion diocese relationship with the Diocese of Chicago. The Renk Diocese has covenantal relationships with a number of U.S. churches, including St. Michael’s Episcopal in Barrington IL, Christ Church Episcopal Alexandria VA, and St. Mary’s Episcopal in Arlington VA.
Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Garang Atem at the time of his Consecration as Bishop of Renk in 2007.
Ambassador Don Booth, now designated Special U.S. Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, was scheduled to visit both countries the week of May 9. The State Department spokesman emphasized May 8 that the U.S. Government remains particularly concerned about “the slow implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R/ARCSS), ongoing violence, and deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions” in South Sudan. Meanwhile, President Salva Kiir has dissolved the South Sudanese parliament, a first step toward reconstituting it under the terms of the R/ARCSS. The new parliament will have 550 members, all nominees (i.e., none elected) from the parties under a numerical formula. The ruling SPLM will have 332 members, the SPLM/IO 128, with 90 from other groups.
This week marks the convening of a major conference in Paris on investment and debt in Sudan. It includes major donors, representatives of the IMF and World Bank, and the Paris Club, which manages government-to-government debt. The IMF has just approved a plan which “will help mobilize the resources needed for the IMF to cover its share of debt relief to Sudan.” The conference will hopefully move Sudan demonstrably farther down the road toward elimination of its $60 billion in international debt and regular assistance from Western donors.
Executive Director
Other News and Notes
The Reverend Joseph Pager Alaak graduates from Virginia Theological Seminary.
From AFRECS Board Member the Rev. Richard Jones
The Reverend Joseph Pager Alaak, standing alone and in conversation with Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, after the Virginia Seminary Commencement May 13
Reverend Joseph Pager Alaak received his Master’s in Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary on Saturday, May 13 and immediately began his drive home back to Nebraska, where he is the priest serving South Sudanese congregations in both Omaha and Lincoln. Bishop Curry delivered the Commencement address, his first public appearance since the restriction of public gatherings as a public health measure over a year ago. Guests at the ceremony were safely spread out and masked.
Other News from Various Sources
From Sudans Post 05/03/2021 and Sudan Tribune 04/30/2021
The Government and UNICEF urge parents to send their children, especially girls, back to school
As learning institutions officially reopened across South Sudan after almost 15 months of closure due to COVID 19, both the government and UNICEF urged parents to return all students to schools.
Before the pandemic, UNICEF said, 2.8 million children were out of school due to poverty, inequality, cultural beliefs, and nomadic lifestyles. However, with the COVID-19 closure, an additional two million children were reportedly sent home.
South Sudan Minister of General Education, Awut Deng Acuil is calling upon parents and caregivers to send their pregnant and lactating daughters to school. Multiple reports have appeared around increases in child marriage and early pregnancies during the school closure.
https://www.sudanspost.com/govt-urges-parents-to-send-pregnant-lactating-girls-back-to-schools/
https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article69505
From Radio Tamazuj 05/05 and 08/2021 and Eye Radio 05/17/2021
Teacher Pay raised in W. Equatoria and issues with Private School Fees
Western Equatoria State government on Monday this week announced a salary increment for all teachers in public schools in the state. Governor Futuyo, speaking at the official reopening of the schools, said his government would increase the salary of teachers to 10,000 SSP monthly, an equivalent of 22 USD. Teachers in the state have been receiving a monthly salary of about 1,500 SSP, which was often paid late.
In response to complaints from parents about significant rises in fees at private schools in South Sudan, the Ministry of General Education and Instruction issued a directive instructing private schools not to raise school fees in the newly reopened schools. The directive sets a ceiling of $80,000 South Sudanese Pounds for school fees and warned that action will be taken against any private or faith-based school which does not follow the new directive.
Private school leaders in South Sudan are threatening to close their institutions if the government does not revoke its decision to limit school fees. They urged the government to withdraw their decision and enter negotiations with the schools to reach a healthy settlement on the issue.
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/w-equatoria-state-government-gives-teachers-a-pay-rise
https://eyeradio.org/schools-cautioned-against-hiking-fees/
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/private-schools-threaten-to-down-tools-in-south-sudan
From Eye Radio 05/03 and 04/18/2021
U.S. calls for protection of aid workers and journalists is South Sudan
By Koang Pal Chang (05/03/2021) and Daniel Danis (04/28/2021)
Larry André, U.S Acting Ambassador to South Sudan makes a point during an interview on Eye Radio Friday, April 16, 2021. Credit | Lou Nelson/Eye Radio
The U.S. Embassy in Juba is calling on the government to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on humanitarian workers in JamJang, Ruweng administrative area. Over the weekend, angry youths stormed the compound where aid workers and their families were living. There are reports that the staff were threatened, robbed, and beaten.
The angry locals were reportedly demanding job opportunities they said are being taken by natives of other states. The embassy acknowledged the critical need for better employment and economic opportunities across South Sudan, particularly for young people, but condemned the attack and demanded guarantees for the safety and security of humanitarian workers.
In another statement, the U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires in Juba has called on the government to protect journalists, and an end to harassment, intimidation, and detention of journalists in South Sudan, He said that the government should facilitate the work of journalism professionals rather than censuring or restricting them.
Ambassador André said that the U.S government recognize the key role that a free press plays in democracy and urged the international community to support media in the country. The U.S. diplomat called on journalists to adhere to the highest standards of conduct and ethics, which he said will help them gain important support from those around them.
https://eyeradio.org/u-s-demands-arrest-of-those-who-attacked-aid-workers-in-jamjang/
https://eyeradio.org/u-s-govt-calls-for-protection-of-journalists-in-s-sudan/
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
As we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost with the gift of the Spirit and the charge to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, we continue to be grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in 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 time of COVID. 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 member Caroline Klam.
Update from Dane Smith
Ambassador Molly Phee to be Assistant Secretary of State for Africa
The Biden Administration has announced the appointment of veteran diplomat, Mary Catherine (Molly) Phee as its new Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Amb. Phee served as U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan 2015-2017, following Susan Page and preceding Thomas Hushek. After her assignment in Juba, she was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. Most recently she has been Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation. Her appointment
requires Senate confirmation. I am pleased that the senior US official for Africa will bring to her job a wealth of expertise about the region at the center of AFRECS’ interest.
Mary Catherine (Molly) Phee, newly named Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Instability in Chad has Implications for Sudan
Chad’s longtime president (since 1990) Idris Deby was killed April 19 in a military confrontation with rebels coming from Libya to overthrow him. The exact circumstances are unclear. The Chadian military quickly appointed Deby’s son Mahamat as president, although the constitution provides for succession by the head of the National Assembly. Protests led to killing of demonstrators and some reshuffling of military council leadership.
Deby’s departure is significant because Chad has since 2005 welcomed refugees from Darfur. As Senior Advisor to the US Government for Darfur, I traveled to Chad in October 2012, visited two refugee camps near the Sudan border, and met with President Deby in Chad’s capital Njamena. My objective was to encourage him to press President Bashir to reach agreement with the Darfuri rebel militias who had not signed on to the agreement negotiated in Doha the previous year. One of those groups, the Justice & Equality Movement (JEM) was largely Zaghawa, a dynamic non-Arab ethnic group spread over both Darfur and Chad. Deby was Zaghawa but his relationship with JEM leaders was uneasy. Deby told me that he had been bringing Darfuri groups to Njamena to try to get them into the Doha Agreement and had found them positively disposed. He expressed the hope that President Bashir would respond positively.
An autocrat at home, brooking no political opposition, Deby prided himself on playing a positive role in the region. He was unsuccessful with Bashir, who had concluded an agreement with the weakest of the rebel groups and had no intention either of accommodating the non-signatory groups or implementing the Doha agreement in a manner to give Darfuris a real voice in their future. Deby was more successful in the next decade in leading the resistance to Islamic terrorist groups in the Sahel, gaining strong French and U.S. support. His troops have been the best trained and most effective in the region in opposing Boko Haram and Al-Qa’id in the Arab Maghreb.
Darfur remains the least stable region of post-Bashir Sudan. The political situation has been generally calm in most of the country. The Transitional Government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and the Sovereignty Council led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have operated so far in delicate equilibrium. Violence has expanded, however, in Darfur in the struggle for land and resources between the pastoralist Arabs and the more settled “African” groups. The Janjawit militias, responsible for genocidal killings in 2005 and after, have reorganized as the Rapid Support Forces, whose commander is the Rizeigat Arab General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), now a powerful member of the Sovereignty Council. The transitional government appears paralyzed in dealing with Darfur. Hundreds have died in clashes between Rizeigat and Masalit in Western Darfur State, with thousands again fleeing to the Chad border. Ironically, the leader of the JEM rebel group, Gibril Ibrahim, is now Sudanese Finance Minister, as a result of the 2020 Juba Agreement which brought most of the remaining Darfur rebel groups into the government.
Betty Bigombe Speaks Frankly about Peace in South Sudan
Uganda peacebuilder Betty Bigombe, famous for her earlier dialogue with the Lord’s Resistance Army on behalf of President Museveni, is now Uganda’s Special Representative for South Sudan. She recently spoke with her usual frankness for the Crisis Group’s Podcast on The Horn (4/21/21). She said that the 2018 peace agreement (R/ARCSS) was not an accord that came from the South Sudanese people and is not helping them. She faulted IGAD regional leaders, who do not speak with one voice and for whom South Sudan is “on the back burner.”
State Department Travel Advisories
The US State Department has recently issued new advisories for travel related to the coronavirus pandemic. For Sudan, the guidance is “Reconsider travel.” For South Sudan it is “Do not travel.” We will be taking the evolution of these advisories into account as we plan travel to the region in 2022.
Executive Director
Other News and Notes
A note from the Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, John Augustino Lumori
“I and the Archbishop Justin Badi have been on a pastoral mission to the internal provinces and have just returned. While we were there, we had limited access to internet.”
Other News from Various Sources
From the East African, April 7, 2021
UN to reduce peacekeepers in South Sudan
David Shearer, outgoing UN Mission Chief in South Sudan, said recently that the UN plans to reduce troop numbers by seven percent this year, due to a drop in violence in the conflict-torn country and also because of UN troops withdrawing from camps where civilians had sought protection during the country’s six-year civil war, handing control of the sites to Juba. Shearer said however that more troops could be brought in if violence rose again.
https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/un-peacekeepers-south-sudan-3352150
From Sudans Post , April 15, 2021
South Sudan has enough weapons to arm unified forces
Ambassador Larry André, Jr. Chargé d’ Affaires U.S Embassy in Juba
speaking at press conference on 15 April 2021 [Photo by Sudans Post]
JUBA – Ambassador Larry André, Jr., the U.S Embassy Chargé d’ Affaires in Juba, responded to claims by the government that the United Nations needed to lift the arms embargo so that they could arm peace forces. He indicated that the county has enough weapons to arm the necessary unified forces provided for in the agreement signed to end the conflict in 2018.
From Various Sources
South Sudan reopens schools after a 1-year closure due to COVID-19
South Sudan’s Vice-President for Service Cluster Hussein Abdelbagi Akol said the national task force had reviewed data on COVID-19 and seen a decline in infections therefor has decided to reopen all schools, Universities, and other higher institutes of learning
Education Minister Awut Deng Acuil said there were recommendations for schools to provide learners and teachers with hand washing facilities, sanitizers, and face masks to keep them safe while at school.
However, schools in flood-affected areas of Jonglei state may not reopen in May, the acting State Director-General of the Ministry of General Education John Guot Dau has said because learning materials and school structures of more than 50 schools were destroyed by last year’s flooding in Jonglei State.
https://www.sudanspost.com/government-reopens-schools-orders-return-to-work/
https://eyeradio.org/jonglei-schools-may-not-reopen-in-may/
https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c302m85q54lt/south-sudan
From Radio Tamazuj April 19, 2021
Returnees in need of aid as they resettle in parts of Central Equatoria State
Support for early livelihood recovery of returnees in South Sudan (UN photo)
Officials in Kajo-Keji and Morobo Counties of Central Equatoria State say thousands of voluntary returnees from neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo need humanitarian assistance as they resettle back home. There are currently over 8,000 voluntary returnees who have resettled in Kajo-Keji, Morobo, and Yei River Counties during the past three months. The returnees need shelter, farm tools, seeds, food, and non-food items to rebuild their livelihoods in the area.
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/returnees-in-need-of-aid-as-they-resettle-in-parts-of-c-equatoria-state
From Aljazeera April 21, 2021
NGO’s call for urgent aid as millions on brink of starvation
Food crisis in South Sudan (VOA picture)
In open letter addressed to world leaders, over 250 NGOs call on governments to intervene as inequality coupled with the COVID crisis has led to an acute food crisis. In a joint statement, the aid groups noted that a year on since the UN warned of “famine of biblical proportions”, donors have only funded five percent of this year’s $7.8bn food security appeal.
The statement said that the amount of additional funding called for by the UN’s World Food Program amounts to $5.5bn, which is equivalent to less than 26 hours of the $1.9 trillion that countries spend per year on the military.
“The richest countries are slashing their food aid even as millions of people go hungry; this is an extraordinary political failure,” Oxfam’s executive director, Gabriela Bucher, said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/20/without-urgent-aid-ngos-warn-millions-at-brink-of-famine
From EyeRadio April 22, 2021
How women are struggling to raise families in Juba
By Winnie Eric
Sarah Wosuk who lives in the Jondoru area of Juba City is among many women in Juba struggling to feed their family – credit Angua Harriet Eric
Today in South Sudan, more than half of the population is facing crisis levels of food insecurity, and flooding has wiped out farmers’ harvests as well as basic infrastructure and health facilities. Women in South Sudan are marginalized and struggle in various ways because of the prolonged civil war. Women are often victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV), rape, illiteracy, and high levels of maternal mortality due to absence of good health facilities.
Sarah Wosuk lives at the Jondoru area of Juba City. She is among women in Juba struggling to put food on the table. The mother of eight children told Eye Radio the source of her family’s survival: “I have eight children. I support them through crushing stones.”
Sarah stated that her family takes one meal a day. “We eat once a day because things are not easy on my side; we eat sorghum and local vegetables (Korofo and Lukukuri) – the greens you can easily get and buy in the market,” she said.
https://eyeradio.org/how-women-are-struggling-to-raise-families-in-juba/
From Radio Tamazuj April 24, 20221
Greater Jonglei’s peace is proceeding well: officials
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, Daniel Abocha Ali, the spokesperson for the Jonglei Peace Committee, said the implementation of the peace process agreed to during a three-day peace conference by communities of Greater Jonglei—Dinka, Nuer, Murle, and Anyuak is progressing.
“As you can see, the peace is going on well. Abducted children are being recovered, stolen cattle are being retrieved and returned, and trade is ongoing among the communities. Those are the dividends of peace,” he said.
Bol Deng Bol, a prominent activist in Jonglei, said while cyclic violence has largely been muted, the peace deal remains fragile. He urged the government to show support for the peace agreement in Jonglei.
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/greater-jonglei-s-peace-is-progressing-well-officials
From Associated Press April 27, 2021
UN experts say South Sudan divisions widen, new war possible
By Edith Lederer
In a report to the security council, U.N. experts raised the possibility of renewed war and said nearly 100,000 are facing “famine-like conditions.” They said that the slow pace of reforms by President Salva Kiir’s government and more than a year of political disputes and disagreements over how to implement the February 2020 cease-fire and a 2018 peace agreement have led to frayed relations between Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar. The government has failed to achieve many reforms including completing unification of the army command, graduating a unified force, and reconstituting the Transitional National Legislative Assembly.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
We continue to be grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. We hope you will consider an additional gift to our ongoing work. 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 was compiled by AFRECS Board Member Caroline Klam.
Update from Dane Smith
I had the honor of meeting with Rt. Rev. Andudu al-Nail, Bishop of Kadugli, at his temporary home in Harrisonburg, VA April 16. I learned more about his last recent visit to the Nuba Mountains. He was able to confirm hundreds of new congregants during a four-month stay. Congregations are not necessarily linked to a permanent church building. Because of years of conflict in the area, they have frequently been forced to change location. Often, they meet in the open air under trees.
Funding from Denver, Colorado, collected in honor of the late Fr. Oja Gafour, is being used to pay teachers at primary schools in the area for girls and boys. A significant portion of the gift, however, pays women to sew reusable sanitary pads for girls, enabling them to stay in school for the entire month, rather than taking time off for their menstrual periods. Such activity is highly important to ensuring equal treatment for girls in a country where girls have traditionally been at great disadvantage.
Rt. Rev. Andudu al-Nail, Bishop of Kadugli (Photo: The Living Church, via Sudan Act)
Bishop Andudu will return to the area shortly. He is cautiously optimistic that the Declaration of Principles signed by Gen. al-Hilu, former rebel leader in the Nuba Mountains, and Gen. Abdel Fatta al-Burhan, Chairman of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, will lead to a final agreement bringing South Kordofan under long-term peace. That declaration announced, “establishment of a civil, democratic, federal state in Sudan, wherein, the freedom of religion, the freedom of belief, practices and worship shall be guaranteed to all Sudanese people.”
David Shearer, UN Special Representative for South Sudan (UN News/Daniel Dickinson)
David Shearer, departing UN Special Representative for South Sudan, whose position made him the head of the UNMISS peacekeeping operation, currently the largest in the world, made a striking final statement April 14. He said that South Sudan has great potential for economic viability with tourism and oil if corruption is successfully dealt with. Up to now “elites” have “siphoned off” the available financial resources which are not going to provide services for the people. He called for international pressures to convince the South Sudanese Government to make the necessary arrangements, which require a census and voter registration process, for early elections. At the end of March, Minister of Presidential Affairs Nhial Deng Nhial announced that elections scheduled for 2022 would not be possible because of delays in implementing the R/ARCSS peace agreement of 2018.
The US Government will provide $95 million to the World Food Program to fund emergency food assistance, shelter, health care, safe water and sanitation services focused on South Sudanese displaced and refugees. The announcement was made in Juba April 15 by Ambassador Larry André, who is currently US Chargé d’Affaires. New US ambassadors to Sudan and South Sudan have not yet been named.
COVID-19 vaccination got underway in South Sudan April 6 after a fitful start. The initial phase, using the AstraZeneca shot, is being carried out in Central Equatoria State. Priority nationally is being given to health workers, to be followed by persons over 65. South Sudan received an initial 132,000 doses from COVAX, with a total of 732,000 doses promised so far, far short of what the country will need to meet its goal of vaccinating 40% of the population. COVAX is the global vaccine enterprise, bringing together the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance), WHO and UNICEF.
As conditions permit, I am looking forward to travel to Episcopal dioceses in the US with links to the Sudans in the second half of 2021, followed by a trip to South Sudan and Sudan in early 2022.
Executive Director
AFRECS Focus Area: The Diaspora
SARS-COVID-19 Continues to Spread in U.S.
by Richard J. Jones
Kwathi Akol Ajawin
On March 29, Moses Akol, a senior ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in South Sudan, died in his sleep in Juba. Many friends in the Washington DC area flocked to the house of his brother Kwathi Akol Ajawin in Burke, Virginia to express their solidarity. As a result, someone spread the virus. At least eight people, including Ajawin, were infected and became weak. Younger children tested negative for the virus but struggled because of the illness of their elders. After two weeks of isolation, Ajawin tested free from Corona infection, but was still too weak to work. In addition to his pastoral work with the Sudan African Fellowship and as a former elder of Cornerstone Free Evangelical Church in Annandale, Virginia, Ajawin is also employed full-time by the U.S. government.
While recuperating, Ajawin wrote to friends, “I have taken days off to regain strength and refocus on my loss. Corona was a complete distraction. Losing another brother was too much, but God is good. Very soon we will be back in God’s kingdom business. Our hands are on the plow and we are not looking back until he calls us home. Pray for the peace of Malakal. Come, Lord Jesus.”
As a pastor and community leader, he added: “Though I do understand that in our African culture mourning is a community thing, I will encourage friends in light of the pandemic to feel free to not show up. If you want to show up, then please check your temperature and make sure you have no symptoms. Do not ignore your symptoms in the name of mourning with the family. Dealing with Corona was both emotionally and physically draining. Let’s mourn in a sensitive and smart way. God bless you all. Quick recovery.”
Other News and Notes
New Bishop enthroned in Diocese of Torit
By Phil Darrow, President of AFRECS
Most Revd Ogeno Charles Opoka was installed as the second Archbishop of Eastern Equatoria Internal Province and the Bishop of Torit.
I have learned that on April 11, Ogeno Charles Opoka, former Bishop of Magwi (and who in 2009 guided Robin Denney, Buck Blanchard, and me on a series of visits to Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria, continuing with them to Western Equatoria without me), was enthroned as the Second Archbishop of the Sub-Province of Eastern Equatoria and Bishop of Torit.
When we met in 2009, “Charles”, as we knew him, was a junior aide to Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, He subsequently obtained degrees in Theology and Human Resources Management in Uganda.
During our 2009 tour we visited the church in the village in Twic East where Archbishop Daniel (and Bishop Joseph Atem Garang) grew up. When Charles stepped briefly to the modest pulpit, I quipped, “A future Archbishop!”, and the local priest with us quipped back without hesitation, “It is a prophecy!”.
I don’t think that I am a prophet, but I am reminded that “the Lord works in mysterious ways.”
Other News from Various Sources
From Sudans Post April 14, 2021
Gov’t plans to repatriate refugees
JUBA – The government of South Sudan said it is planning to start the voluntary repatriation and integration of Internally Displaced Persons and refugees located in neighboring countries. According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are about 4.5 million displaced people from South Sudan seeking refuge in Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
Speaking to reporters on April 14, Ateny Wek Ateny, Press Secretary in the Office of the President, said “This time window will allow the authorities to conduct a census including repatriated refugees and displaced people.” Wek made the comments during a press conference in response to U.S Senate hearing on allegations by Dr. Peter Biar Ajak.
https://www.sudanspost.com/govt-plans-to-repatriate-refugees-idps/\
From Eye Radio April 18, 2021
Experts advise for cautious lifting of lockdown
By Lesuba Memo
Health officials have advised the National Taskforce on coronavirus to cautiously lift the partial lockdown in effect since early February amidst a decline in cases in recent weeks. The orders were largely disregarded as public transport vehicles maintained their full capacity and other businesses continued to operate.
https://eyeradio.org/experts-advise-for-cautious-lifting-of-lockdown/
President Salva Kiir and his staff get a thermal screening before entering his office at State House in January 2021 | Credit | Office of the President
From Radio Tamazuj April 15, 2021
COVID 19: South Sudan lifts partial lockdown
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/covid-19-south-sudan-lifts-partial-lockdown
From Associated Press April 13, 2021
UN Chief: 52 armies and groups suspected of sexual violence
By Edith M. Lederer
Sexual violence continues to be perpetrated by both the Government’s armed forces and non-state actors in South Sudan. Rapid deployment forces and armed forces in Sudan have been similarly cited in a recent United Nations report and barred from eligibility to be included in U.N. peace operations. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “Sexual violence was deployed as a tactic of war, torture, and terrorism, in settings [where] overlapping security and humanitarian crises, linked with militarization and proliferation of arms, continued unabated.”
https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-middle-east-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-19-pandemic-united-nations-922fded7be7df8b9765ec6ab8f522c9d
From Eye Radio April 11. 2021
Bor Doctors abandon COVID-19 center over incentives
By Woja Emmanuel
At least 34 health care workers in Jonglei state have laid down their tools demanding unpaid risk allowances. The health workers at Critical Care Centre, a Covid-19 facility in Bor Town, say the government and its partners have not been paying them for two months. The 34 healthcare workers – comprising nurses, clinical officers, and lab technicians – were contracted by Medical Del-Mundo, a Spanish health agency, to take care of Covid-19 patients.
https://eyeradio.org/bor-doctors-abandon-covid-19-center-over-incentives/
Voice of America – April 9, 2021
UN makes further cuts in food rations for South Sudan refugees, displaced persons
By Winnie Cirino
People in conflict-affected areas of South Sudan collect food from WFP (WFP Peter Testuzza Photo)
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – The U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) says it has been forced to further reduce rations for refugees and displaced people in South Sudan because of a lack of funding. It says 700,000 people this month will see rations drop to just half the recommended daily amount. Peter Mayen, South Sudan’s minister for humanitarian assistance, said the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched donors’ resources and made it harder to raise funds for food aid. Mayen appealed to international donors to make contributions so lives can be saved.
https://www.voanews.com/africa/un-makes-further-cuts-food-rations-south-sudan-refugees-displaced
https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article69419
From Aljazeera . . .April 8.2021
Kenyan Court temporarily blocks closure of camps
Kenya’s high court has temporarily blocked for 30 days the closure of two refugee camps hosting more than 400,000 people, according to media reports and activists.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/8/kenyan-court-rules-against-govt-plan-to-close-refugee-camps
From VOA – South Sudan Focus . . . April 8, 2021
Commercial trucks refusing to enter South Sudan because of insecurity
By Winnie Cirino
Trucks at Nimule border, bringing in market commodities from Uganda and Kenya
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – Hundreds of commercial trucks carrying goods bound for South Sudan have stopped at the borders this week, with drivers refusing to complete deliveries because of insecurity. A series of armed attacks on vehicles in South Sudan last month left at least 15 people dead. The truckers say they will not leave Uganda and Kenya until their safety can be guaranteed.
Several traders told Radio Tamazuj that prices of basic commodities in Juba have risen due to insecurity along highways which has scared drivers from traveling to Juba. Nabukenya Sharifa, a Ugandan trading in Juba’s market, said, “We last stocked food before the Easter holidays and the vehicles which bring food have been stopped. People are killing each other; people are dying every day because of insecurity.”
Daniel Deng, an official in charge of border agents in the town of Nimule, said there are about 3,000 trucks parked on the Uganda side of the border. He said if the standoff continues, prices of fuel and food in South Sudan may start to rise because the landlocked country is dependent on goods transported through its neighbors.
https://www.voanews.com/africa/south-sudan-focus/commercial-trucks-refusing-enter-south-sudan-because-insecurity
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/juba-residents-decry-high-commodity-prices
From the East African April 8, 2021
UN reunites 58 abducted women, children with their families in South Sudan
By Garang Malak
Juba, The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) during Easter reunited 58 abducted women and children with their families. The women and children were kidnapped during last year’s vicious inter-communal fighting in Jonglei State. UNMISS says the exchange of abducted women and children followed a community-led goodwill agreement between the Lou Nuer, Murle and Dinka Bor ethnic communities.
The result led to UNMISS helicopters shuttling between Pibor, Pochalla, Pieri and Juba to pick up groups of women and children and return them to their communities. The victims of abduction are receiving support from Save the Children and local NGOs Grassroots Empowerment and Development Organization (GREDO) and Community Action Organization (CAO).
https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/abducted-children-and-women-reunite-with-families-south-sudan-3353456
From Reuters April11, 2021
South Sudan’s President appoints new Army Chief
Newly appointed Army Chief, General Santino Deng Wol (Presidency)
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has appointed General Santino Deng Wol as the new head of the army, Kiir’s spokesman said on Sunday, as part of a wider reshuffle within the government.
The director general of the security services and the deputy minister of defense were also replaced in the reshuffle, Kiir’s spokesman Ateny Wek told Reuters. “It was a routine reshuffle,” Wek said.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
As spring bursts forth in new life, we continue to be grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, enable AFRECS to expand our impact. You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. We hope you will consider a generous gift of what you are able at this time. 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 was compiled by AFRECS Board members Caroline Klam and Richard Jones
Update from Dane Smith
We recently learned of the appointment of the Reverend Canon Fajak Avajani as the Assistant Bishop of Khartoum. He will backstop Episcopal Primate Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo in his responsibilities for the Diocese of Khartoum, enabling the Primate to give additional attention to the other four dioceses under his responsibility. Canon Fajak, originally from the eastern Nuba Mountains, is currently head of the Bible Translation Department of the Episcopal Church of Sudan. One of his major achievements was the translation of the Bible into his mother tongue Tira, published in 2009.
A new milestone in the consolidation of peace in Sudan was the March 28 signature by Sovereignty Council Chairman, Gen. Abdel Fatta Burhan, and SPLM/North leader Gen. Abdelaziz al-Hilu of a Declaration of Principles. It affirms that “The establishment of a civil, democratic, federal state in Sudan, wherein, the freedom of religion, the freedom of belief and religious practices and worship shall be guaranteed to all Sudanese people by separating the identities of culture, region, ethnicity, and religion from the State. …No religion shall be imposed on anyone, and the state shall not adopt any official religion. The state shall be impartial in terms of religious matters and matters of faith & conscience.” The declaration marks the repudiation of the concept of Sudan as an Islamic state governed by shari’a law, which has dominated Sudanese politics since President Nimeiri’s proclamation in 1983. It undergirded the thirty-year rule of Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
President Biden has extended for one year the national emergency related to South Sudan originally declared in 2014, after civil war broke out. The original declaration cites “an extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by the situation in and in relation to South Sudan.” The emergency declaration imposes a responsibility to follow activities which threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan, including widespread violence and atrocities, human rights abuses, recruitment and use of child soldiers, attacks on peacekeepers and obstruction of humanitarian works.
The past few weeks marked both progress and backsliding on peacebuilding in South Sudan. The week of March 15 South Sudan Council of Churches peacemaking teams visited Pibor for two days of meetings with community and church leaders. Separately, representatives of Lou Nuer, Bor Dinka and the Murle recommitted to peaceful coexistence during a 10-day grassroots peace conference in Jonglei State. They reportedly agreed to return all abducted persons, end violence, permit movement of traders, and punish those found in defiance of peace conference resolutions.” However, there were new incidents of violence in Equatoria. Up to 14 were killed by gunmen in Eastern Equatoria, while more than a dozen were slain on the Juba-Yei road, including an attack on the convoy of the Governor of Central Equatoria, allegedly by forces loyal to Gen. Cirillo.
The Biden Administration still has not announced the appointment of an Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. (A similar vacancy exists with respect to the Middle East & North Africa.). But Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), who has become the first Black chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has called for a “reset” in US-Africa relations. “My goal is to reset the United States’ relationship with Africa by focusing on shared challenges, expanding people-to-people relationships and exchanges, developing partnerships to increase youth participation in the digital workforce, and championing a more robust presence across the continent.”
Executive Director
Focus on Trauma Healing
By Dane Smith, Jr. – AFRECS Executive Director
Trauma, as Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, points out, is “a wound or injury — physical, psychic, emotional, or spiritual — inflicted upon the body by an act of violence.” She suggests that those who have experienced a long pattern of violence and its trauma find it “hard to let in things from outside which could be salvific or freeing.” In other words, it is hard to “let in the loving grace of God.” Finding a way to let in God’s grace is the purpose of the trauma healing training AFRECS has been supporting.
For the past two years, AFRECS has been working in partnership with Five Talents and the Mothers Union in Renk, close to the northern border with Sudan. The sponsor of the multi-activity program, which injects trauma mitigation instruction into training in literacy, numeracy, and basic finance, is the activist Episcopal Bishop of Renk, Rt. Rev. Joseph Garang Atem. In a telephone conversation last week with AFRECS Executive Director Dane Smith, Bishop Joseph reported that the savings groups of women and male youth, which provide the context for trauma healing training, have been going well despite the near shutdown of the country over COVID-19. Despite a pause during the April-July period last year, the groups resumed meeting, applying social distance standards. Fortunately, the impact of COVID in Renk has been minimal, although its exact extent is uncertain since testing has not been available. In order to help the savings groups mobilize additional funds for saving, Bishop Joseph is bringing specialists to Renk to do vocational training in carpentry, mechanics, electricity, and water. That will not only create more jobs generally, but will hopefully, in particular, provide more of a savings base for those in the savings groups.
Bishop Joseph said, “Trauma healing is very, very important, because it changes the lives of people and their mentality.” It directs their thinking away from retribution, revenge, and violence to constructive peaceful activities. He emphasized that it is desirable to bring many different groups engaged in different activities into trauma healing.
USAID is in the process of unfolding a new peace project, Promoting Civic Engagement and Peace (PCEP), for the period ending 2025. The contractor, TD-Global, will be using small grant and rapid response activities to provide urgent funding and support to a range of South Sudanese civil society groups and individuals, including religious groups. This support aims at helping actors at the local level to advocate for peaceful solutions and advance communal dialogue and healing where there is division. PCEP does this through a variety of “trauma-informed” activities. About 80% of the work is to take place in 13 counties in five states — Eastern Equatoria, Upper Nile, Unity, Jonglei, and Western Bahr el Ghazal. AFRECS is examining what kind of links with Episcopal clergy and the Mothers Union it might be appropriate to promote to TD Global in those locations.
News and Notes
Peace Initiatives in Southern Jonglei Area
Following a January 2021 three-day conference in Juba among Dinka, Nuer, and Murle communities, the rival groups committed to coexist peacefully in Jonglei State and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA). This was made possible through the initiative of Joshua Konyi, the Administrator of the GPAA and his counterparts among the Nuer and Dinka communities who received funds for this effort from the Government of South Sudan. President Salva Kiir addressed the group. The participation of women and youth was notable.
This peace agreement was followed up in February with a recommitment celebration in Pibor involving the community as well as peacemakers from all three groups. A second recommitment by representatives of the Lou Nuer, Dinka Bor and Murle was held during a ten-day grassroots conference concluded on March 24 in Uror County of Jonglei State. Delegates agreed on the return of all those abducted from any of their communities, an end to violence, allowance for free movement of traders, and punishment of those found in defiance of peace conference resolutions.
Jacob Lokocho Nyaphi, a representative of the Murle community, said: “The peace conference was fruitful. We were seventeen from the Greater Pibor area, seventeen from Greater Bor, and over 20 from Greater Akobo. We reviewed the implementation of the Juba peace conference. We resolve to stop cattle raiding, to collect the abducted children, and to pursue community integration”.
Peacemakers from the South Sudan Council of Churches are following up with local community and church leaders in Pibor, Bor and Akobo.
On April 2, a celebration among all three groups was held in Pibor featuring the return of kidnapped women and children from all three groups to their rightful relatives. Rev. Orozu Lokine, Presbyterian Church of SS General Secretary, said that this would be the “beginning of true peace and reconciliation among the neighboring tribes.”
Sources: Radio Tamazuj, March 18; Rev. James Aleyi Zeelu, Eastern Jonglei Presbytery and Rev. Orozu Lokine, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan.
Kenya orders closing of refugee camps, gives ultimatum to UN agency
The Kenyan government declared on March 24 that it will close two refugee camps, including Kakuma, which houses the Presbyterian Shalom Education Program and a church theological institute. The major population of both camps is Somali, although there are also refugees from South Sudan and other nations in the camps. The Kenyan government, which has no diplomatic relations with Somalia, believes that much Islamic terrorism originates in these camps. Handling the 410,000 refugees living in the two camps is a large problem. Kenya’s Interior Minister gave the United Nations High Commission for Refugees fourteen days to submit a plan for compliance. The UNCHR has responded urging protection for those in the camp who continue to need protection and committing to engage in dialogue.
Source: Bill Andress, Reuters, March 14, 2021 and Aljazeera, April 5, 2021 by Sally Hayden
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BG1K7
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/5/no-other-home-refugees-in-kenya-camps-devastated-over-closure
Humanitarian Snapshot of South Sudan 2021
South Sudan estimated population: 10 – 12 million
People in need: 8.3 million (70 – 83 % of population)
Internally displaced 1.8 million
Refugees 2.3 million
Total displaced 4.1 million (34 – 41 % of population)
Acutely food insecure 5.8 million (48 – 58 % of population)
Source: United Nations Mission for South Sudan, OCHA, Feb. 28, 2021
https://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/south-sudan-humanitarian-snapshot-february-2021
Humanitarian Snapshot of Sudan 2021
Sudan estimated population: 42- 44 million
People in need: 8.9 million (18 – 21 % of population)
Internally displaced 2.55 million
Refugees 1.1 million
Total displaced 3.65 million (8.3 – 8.7 % of population)
Acutely food insecure 7.1 million (16 – 17 % of population)
Source: United Nations Mission for South Sudan, OCHA, April 5, 2021
https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-situation-report-5-april-2021
The News from Sudan
The news from Sudan is about tensions with Ethiopia which are distracting the Transitional Government from dealing with the severe economic hardships endured by most Sudanese. At the beginning of March President Abel Fatta al-Sisi of Egypt made his first visit to Khartoum since the overthrow of President Bashir in 2019. He conferred with Sudanese leaders about the problems posed by Ethiopian filling of the Renaissance High Dam on the Blue Nile. Last week Prime Minister Hamdok of Sudan formally requested that the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States mediate a solution to the dam dispute.
The dam debate has now become enmeshed in a border conflict between Sudan and Ethiopia which has flared since the beginning of the year. Al-Fashqa (sometimes spelled Fashaga by the Western press), a strip of land between Sudan’s Gedaref state and the troubled Ethiopian province of Tigray, was placed on the Sudanese side by a 1902 treaty between Sudan’s then colonial overlords and the Emperor of Ethiopia. In the 1990s Christian Amhara farmers from Ethiopia migrated to the area as laborers and then began cultivating the land. Recent flows of refugees from Tigray into Sudan drew attention to al-Fashqa, and Sudanese forces have reportedly reoccupied the enclave. The Washington Post reported last week that troops have been reinforced on both sides, with Amhara militias from Ethiopia playing an aggressive role in the strip. The Sudanese claim that Ethiopia’s prime minister is linking the border conflict with the dam dispute because of his dependence on Amhara militias for control of Tigray. Troubles in the Horn have gained Washington’s attention. Last week the Biden Administration, which has criticized Ethiopia for “ethnic cleansing” in Tigray, sent Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE) a close friend of the President, to Addis Ababa to discuss “the deteriorating situation in the Tigray region and the risk of broader instability in the Horn of Africa.”
Source: Dane Smith, AFRECS Executive Director
Friends’ Correspondence: News from the Rt. Rev. Hilary Garang Deng Awer
The Reverend Thomas D. Faulkner, New York City to the Rt. Rev. Hilary Garang Deng Awer, Bishop of Malakal, in Juba:
“I want you know that when I retired as Vicar of Christ Church, Sparkill, New York this past July, I donated your powerful “Crown of Thorns” to the Sudanese Chapel at the church. It is an appreciated addition. Blessings that you and your family can enjoy a joyous Easter.”
Garang to Faulkner:
“Thank you, dear friend and colleague in art, Christian faith’s insight, building to meditation and renewal. It is good and God did it by making us arrive to that in our fellowship. I am retiring soon this May 2021. I am currently in Malakal again, for eighth time since its destruction. It is not yet fully recovered. We still need your prayers. Remain in his peace and God richly bless you all. Happy Easter!
Bishop Hilary Garang Deng, Juba to Dr. Ellen F. Davis, Duke University Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina:
“We are glad to hear from you again. We cannot forget you in our lives. You were such a precious courageous mother at the time of need for God’s glory! All of us your friends over here feel encouraged of what has been invested and achieved in us, the Church of God in South Sudan for God’s glory. Pass our love and regards to Dwayne and the rest of your family as we know them all. “
Davis to Garang:
“How wonderful to hear from you, Hilary. Congratulations on your Master’s degree, and every blessing on the new work at Uganda Christian University – and upon your retirement! Joyous Easter and love in Christ to each of you.”
Bishop Hilary Garang Deng, Juba to the Rev. Richard J. Jones, Alexandria, Virginia:
“Happy Easter! As we celebrate the Easter of this year in hope and confidence of what God has done for us and humanity! And remembering “The Crown of Thorns”, product of my good time with you all at Virginia Theological Seminary. I finished my Master in Theology last December 2020, proceeding now with Ph. D. in theology at Uganda Christian University, Mukono.
“As I retire and wish to continue with my normal life in Juba, may God continue to use us to bring joy and hope in Christ to many — to be reminded of God’s love and peace through the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In His name we are healed and made completely new and perfect before God and men/humanity.”
Lost Girl’ brought to the US amid Sudan war connects with surviving family member after 30 years – a resurrection story!
In a year of pandemic and continuing struggles in her native Sudan, Rebecca Deng had a reason to truly celebrate in her new home in Holland, Michigan.
In a small South Sudanese village, in a shaky phone-recorded message, one man can be seen in his white robes standing before a primitive hut expressing, in his native tongue Dinka, gratitude for such assistance to buy staples like maize and beans.
He speaks passionately about his baby niece — the daughter of his sister who was slain following an attack in the Second Sudanese Civil War, dragging on from 1983 to 2005, between rebel fighters and an authoritarian government in Khartoum.
His sister — Deng’s mother — had been heavily pregnant at the time and was propelled to run from the attackers on foot to reach the closest hospital. But with few medical resources and a clinic overwhelmed by the wounded, she died due to complications in childbirth. Deng’s baby sibling lived to see a little sunlight, she said, but died a couple of months later.
In the video, the man remembers the suddenly motherless 2-year-old Deng, who four years later disappeared with the throes of those fleeing as her home village of Duk Padiet was set ablaze by incoming insurgents. Yet he remains firm that at some point, from someplace, that child was sent to the United States.
The video was shared on Facebook. Someone within the community sent it to Deng. She immediately knew it was her uncle: the only close surviving family member in a savage conflict that killed more than 2 million, displaced over 4 million and left countless bodies and brains broken and disfigured in its ashen aftermath.
“I saw this man who was missing one arm, standing up and calling for his sister’s daughter, adamant that the baby [made it out] alive,” Deng told Fox News. “It was my Uncle Peter.”
She was able to track down a phone number more than 7,000 miles away and made that long-awaited call in November 2020.
“He just screamed; I could hear people in the background telling him to sit down. Then he was laughing,” Deng continued, detailing the way his voice rose to a shrill in delight and the image of his face dripping with tears. “He kept saying that he was always looking to the day that he would hear my voice, that he still mourned [for my mother] and having to bury her.”
Peter Nyok Riak — her uncle’s full name — promised he could now sleep so well. That it was the most precious day of his life, which had been struck by a miracle.
And for Deng, a mother of three and now 36 who repeatedly describes herself as a “person of faith,” her life has come full circle. At just 15, she was one of 89 “Lost Girls” — compared to the 3,700 “Lost Boys” — to have been selected to come to the U.S as an orphaned refugee in 2000.
For some eight years, from 1992 onward, Deng lived in the Kakuma Refugee Camp’s dusty confines in northern Kenya, which remains one of the continent’s largest for the displaced today. But growing up in a country cracked with bloodletting and barbarity was not the only agony Deng was made to endure as a small girl.
Just days before she boarded her flight to the U.S as part of the “Lost Girls” program, she was raped in the refugee camp — she learned soon after being taken in by a foster family in Michigan, and still something of a child herself, that she was pregnant from the assault. Always a dedicated student, Deng credits the sliver of access she had to education in the camp as being a key driver, along with her faith, to not only surviving but thriving as a young mother balancing books with her parenting duties.
In the U.S, Deng went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in international development from Calvin University and a master’s in organizational/ministry leadership from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and became an American citizen in 2006. Last year, she published the poignant memoir “What They Meant for Evil” and advocates for children traumatized by war.
“What kept me going through all those years in the refugee camp was going to school and church,” Deng said. “But it was more than that — it was less about the preaching and more about the friendships we formed at Church. It was about singing and dancing with my friends. It was a community that was there for each other. It was knowing that together we were all going through — and healing from — traumatic events, and yet we did not have to say a word.”
Although the Christian community is comparatively small in her Michigan town, and the coronavirus pandemic has limited access to physical houses of worship, Deng said she continues her Bible studies at home and sings aloud hymns in Dinka.
Her book is available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/What-They-Meant-Evil-Suffering/dp/1546017224/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=What+They+Meant+for+Evil&qid=1617796414&s=books&sr=1-1) and from other book sellers.
Source: Fox News 12/24/2020 by Hollie McKay
https://www.foxnews.com/world/lost-girl-brought-to-us-sudan-war-finds-surviving-family-member-30-years-later
Other News from Various Sources
Government plans to reopen schools in May
Eye radio 03/25/2021 by Okot Emmanuel
The government is likely to reopen schools in May after being closed for months due to the surge in coronavirus cases, according to the Minister of General Education and Instruction, Awut Deng.
Last month, the task force on coronavirus renewed the ban on social gathering – including sports, religious and cultural events in a bid to control the surge of the virus. It also maintained the closure of private and public schools across the country.
Speaking in Juba on Wednesday during the handing over of newly printed primary and secondary school textbooks, the Minister suggested that the schools will reopen safely and securely. “Availability of enough textbooks is going to be the key to our preparation for reopening schools this year because of COVID-19,” said the Minister. “It is important that we observe the protocols, and this is one of the projects that is going to make it possible for us to observe the protocol.” “In May, we are going to open but the books will be in state and schools before May.”
Schools will first be disinfected ahead of the reopening. All schools will be required to measure the temperature of every child before entering the school premises and the school children will also be required to wear masks and wash hands regularly.
Communication from Rev. Joseph Bilal
Rev. Joseph Bilal, Acting Vice Chancellor of the Episcopal University of South Sudan, told us in a recent conversation with US church leaders that churches and schools in the country remain closed, and that, therefore, teachers are not being paid. Colleges are expected to reopen in April. The Episcopal Church is working to mediate disputes between pastoralists and farmers in Central Equatoria that have sometimes erupted in murderous violence. Bilal said that additional resources are needed for that work.
Source: Dane Smith, AFRECS Executive Director
Drowned land: hunger stalks SS flooded villages
The Guardian 03/22/2021 by Susan Martinez Photos by Peter Caton for Action Against Hunger
After the unprecedented floods last summer, the people of Old Fangak, a small town in northern South Sudan, should be planting now. But the flood water has not receded, the people are still marooned and now they are facing severe hunger. Of the 62 villages served by Old Fangak’s central market, 45 are devastated by the flooded river.
“Flooding, conflict, Covid-19 and poverty make the situation here dire,” says Sulaiman Sesay, of Action Against Hunger, one of the few aid organizations active in this area of South Sudan. “The world needs to know that people are suffering in this way.”
In Old Fangak people grew sorghum, a cereal that is easy to cultivate. Now they can eat only water lilies and fish. But not everyone has fishing nets and for those who do the catches are rarely enough to satisfy the appetite. “People will die of hunger. Everyone in Old Fangak is lacking food and lost what they cultivated. Hunger is the one that will kill people,” says Peter Kak, a fisherman and grandfather of five who lives on a grass island with his son Samuel. The two men stayed behind after sending the rest of the family to higher ground. Here, they fish every day.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/19/drowned-land-hunger-stalks-south-sudans-flooded-villages
Over 30 million people “one step away from starvation” UN warns
The Guardian 03/22/2021
Families in pockets of Yemen and South Sudan are already in the grip of starvation, according to a report on hunger hotspots published by the agency’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP). An estimated 34 million people are struggling with emergency levels of acute hunger, meaning they are ‘one step away from starvation’. In six counties of South Sudan 100,000 people are in situations of severe food insecurity, the most severely affected areas are Bahr al-Ghazel and eastern Upper Nile.
Acute hunger is being driven by conflict, climate shocks and the Covid pandemic, and, in some places, compounded by storms of desert locusts.
“The magnitude of suffering is alarming,” said FAO director-general Qu Dongyu. “It is incumbent upon all of us to act now and to act fast to save lives, safeguard livelihoods and prevent the worst situation.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/24/over-30-million-people-one-step-away-from-starvation-un-warns
UN Renews Mandate of Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan
Amnesty International: South Sudan News March 24, 2021
On March 24, 2021, the UN Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan for another year. The Commission was established in March 2016 with a mandate to “determine and report the facts and circumstances of, collect and preserve evidence of, and clarify responsibility for alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes, including sexual and gender-based violence and ethnic violence, with a view to ending impunity and providing accountability.” This mandate has been renewed annually since then.
In its most recent report, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan noted “a massive escalation in violence perpetrated by organized tribal militias” over the past year, fueled by failure of the signatories to implement the 2018 peace agreement.
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=26761&LangID=E
First COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Juba, but vaccine launch postponed briefly
VOA – South Sudan in Focus March 25, 2021 by Viola Elias
Radio Tamazuj March 29, 2021 and March 31, 2021
JUBA 03/25/2021 The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in South Sudan’s Juba International Airport on Thursday. The 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered first to health care workers, including doctors and nurses, along with other vulnerable groups.
“The COVID-19 vaccine will help us to protect our population against the COVID infections and prepare for a return to a normal life. We are grateful to all partners for their support in facilitating the arrival of the vaccines in our country,” South Sudan Health Minister Elizabeth Achuil told reporters at Juba International Airport.
A COVID-19 vaccination campaign will kick off across the country next week, according to Hamida Lasseko, the UNICEF representative for South Sudan.
JUBA 03/29/2021 South Sudan’s government has postponed the Covid-19 vaccine launch, scheduled to take place on March 29 for unknown reasons. The president and senior government officials were expected to receive their first jabs of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines during the launch, followed by health care workers in the first wave of vaccinations.
The director for preventive disease control at South Sudan’s Ministry of Health, Dr. John Rumunu said, the vaccination exercise was postponed due to logistical challenges. However, South Sudan’s Covid-19 incident Manager at the ministry of health, Dr. Richard Laku said, he was not aware that the vaccination had been postponed. South Sudan received the first batch on March 25, and another 60,000 doses on March 26.
According to the health ministry, the vaccines will first be administered to priority groups including the frontline health workers, elderly people of 65 years and above, and people with underlying medical conditions.
The ministry said it has trained 60 health workers who will administer the vaccines at 18 medical centers in Juba beginning Tuesday this week. However, it remains unclear when the vaccinations will begin.
Juba 03/31/2021 South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Tuesday after being briefed by the ministry of health officials at the statehouse, approved the launch of the coronavirus vaccination campaign across the country.
On Tuesday, a team of medical doctors made a presentation on the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine to President Kiir and senior government officials.
The Covid-19 vaccination administration for frontline health workers began in Juba on March 31 in three centers, Juba Teaching Hospital, Buluk Police Medical Hospital, and Al Giada Military Hospital, according to Dr. Richard Laku, the Covid-19 incident manager. This is part of the government plan to roll out vaccines to priority groups such as the health workers, the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, teachers, etc.
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/first-covid-19-vaccines-arrive-juba-south-sudan
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
At this joyous season of Easter, we remain grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. We hope you will consider another gift of whatever you can afford during this season of celebration of victory over death — as we continue the work of bringing new life in South Sudan through the church. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302
Update from Dane Smith
The news from South Sudan in late March is about desperate conditions in areas on the edge of famine, slightly tempered by some progress in bringing additional parties into the 2018 peace agreement. The World Food Program reports that in six counties of South Sudan 100,000 people are “one step away from famine.” Overall, 7.2 million are in a situation of severe food insecurity. The area most severely affected includes counties in Bahr al-Ghazal and eastern Upper Nile. Although in places like Maridi, in Western Equatoria, wildfires have taken over from floods, destroying a diocesan guest house, heavy flooding is predicted again for later this year.
The news from Sudan is about tensions with Ethiopia which are distracting the Transitional Government from dealing with the severe economic hardships endured by most Sudanese. At the beginning of March President Abel Fatta al-Sisi of Egypt made his first visit to Khartoum since the overthrow of President Bashir in 2019. He conferred with Sudanese leaders about the problems posed by Ethiopian filling of the Renaissance High Dam on the Blue Nile. Last week Prime Minister Hamdok of Sudan formally requested that the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States mediate a solution to the dam dispute.
The dam debate has now become enmeshed in a border conflict between Sudan and Ethiopia which has flared since the beginning of the year. Al-Fashqa (sometimes spelled Fashaga by the Western press), a strip of land between Sudan’s Gedaref state and the troubled Ethiopian province of Tigray, was placed on the Sudanese side by a 1902 treaty between Sudan’s then colonial overlords and the Emperor of Ethiopia. In the 1990s Christian Amhara farmers from Ethiopia migrated to the area as laborers and then began cultivating the land. Recent flows of refugees from Tigray into Sudan drew attention to al-Fashqa, and Sudanese forces have reportedly reoccupied the enclave. The Washington Post reported last week that troops have been reinforced on both sides, with Amhara militias from Ethiopia playing an aggressive role in the strip. The Sudanese claim that Ethiopia’s prime minister is linking the border conflict with the dam dispute because of his dependence on Amhara militias for control of Tigray. Troubles in the Horn have gained Washington’s attention. Last week the Biden Administration, which has criticized Ethiopia for “ethnic cleansing” in Tigray, sent Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE) a close friend of the President, to Addis Ababa to discuss “the deteriorating situation in the Tigray region and the risk of broader instability in the Horn of Africa.”
In church news the Episcopal Province of Sudan has just elected an Assistant Bishop for Khartoum to facilitate the tasks of the Primate, Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo, in his responsibilities for all five Sudanese dioceses. Episcopalians in Sudan have been suffering greatly from the COVID lockdown, which has made it difficult for the largely poor population to travel into Khartoum and other major cities to work. Church leaders, the Mothers Union and international organizations have been giving priority to food security and income generation activities over education in the current crisis.
Rev. Joseph Bilal, Acting Vice Chancellor of the Episcopal University of South Sudan, told us in a recent conversation with US church leaders that churches and schools in the country remain closed, and that, therefore, teachers are not being paid. Colleges are expected to reopen in April. The Episcopal Church is working to mediate disputes between pastoralists and farmers in Central Equatoria that have sometimes erupted in murderous violence. Bilal said that additional resources are needed for that work.
Executive Director
Editors’ Note: We offer you for Holy Week two images by Hilary Garang Deng Awer, artist and retired Bishop of Malakal, South Sudan. War and floods drove Hilary Garang, born in Twic County in 1956, to Malakal and El-Obeid, before he studied fine arts at Khartoum Polytechnic. He created this charcoal sketch “Three Sudanese Men” on a visit to Ridley Hall, Cambridge UK in 2016.”
Focus on Theological Education:
By the numbers: Enrollments in the constituent Colleges of the Episcopal University of South Sudan
by Richard J. Jones, AFRECS Board Member
In December 2019, following a meeting of the Principals, the Newsletter of the Episcopal University of South Sudan reported the following enrollments:
Bishop Gwynne Theological College, Juba: 158 students in theology and religious studies
St. John’s College of Theology and Development, Wau: 393 students
Renk Theological College, Renk: 45 students
Kajo Keji Christian College, located in Moyo, Uganda: students in theology 142, education 45, business administration 66
Chaima Christian Institute, Maridi: 79 students in theology, social work, and development.
Due to Covid -19, most schools were not functioning in 2000, but they anticipate regathering in April 2021.
Other theological schools also serve the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, including Bishop Allison Theological College, located in Arua, Uganda. The 50-year-old Bishop Shukai Bible Training Institute in Omdurman, Sudan, serves the Episcopal Church of Sudan, including outlying centers in Kadugli, Wad Medani, and Port Sudan, teaching mainly in Arabic.
A personal reflection: Where Do They Go after St. John’s College, Wau?
by Susan Virginia Mead, Diocese of Southwestern Virginia
This is the story of a dream, friendships made, and partnerships which continue five years later with people in South Sudan.
When I taught at St. John’s College of Theology and Development for four months in 2016 and was staying at the ECSS guesthouse in Wau, the college was under the direction of the Rev. Nathaniel Maral. Nathaniel was just then forming the African Christian Ecumenical Alliance (ACEA), a non-profit organization, operating in Wau and beyond. Some of their most recent work has been in peace and reconciliation efforts and advocacy for women, especially in the form of empowering girl children to end early forced marriages. Nathaniel reports that ACEA has just built several buildings to house their staff and headquarters. I am now working here in the U.S. to find partners who also focus on empowerment of women, to assist him. He has roofed the buildings — for less than $400! – and now seeks funds for doors and windows.
A relationship that began in the parking lot of a 2011 AFRECS conference in Richmond, Virginia, followed and sustained me while I was in South Sudan–and continues today. By the time I arrived in South Sudan, Mariak Chuor, a former child soldier raised in Richmond, had returned to the Diocese of Gogrial to work on his family farm and to share his expertise in solar technology. With funding from a youth group in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, Mariak had offered a week-long seminar at St. John’s College while I was there, teaching simple solar energy techniques and leadership strategies. Mariak continues this work today but has added basketball coaching to his resume!
He recently asked for help with raising money to buy forty-eight pairs of used shoes for his teams–and enough extra money to buy six basketballs. Several sports-enthusiast alumni of Virginia’s Ferrum College have joined me and funded that small project, starting with getting Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors to sign memorabilia for the fundraiser. Now one of the biggest stars in the National Basketball Association is thinking about the plight of youth in South Sudan!
At St. John’s I taught sociology and peace studies. Then from afar I witnessed the graduation of a theology student cohort go on to minister to their own communities, one even leading peace negotiations that saved lives after a revenge killing. They used South Sudanese prayers published in a book I had purchased at an AFRECS conference and used in class.
Upon returning to the U.S., I followed a number of other success stories: a St. John’s business program graduate, made possible through sponsorship by Virginia college students and faculty; a St. John’s faculty member who earned his Master’s degree in environmental studies, funded in honor of a nationally recognized water-quality expert from Virginia; a young man who helped ECSS visitors to Wau day in and day out, now advancing his education through a nursing scholarship at the Catholic Health Training Institute, but needing help with his food, books, and incidentals each month.
As opportunities for South Sudanese citizens grow, it is a blessing — though at times overwhelming — to facilitate connections between people in the U.S. and these promising educational endeavors.
One ongoing educational partnership is with Hope House International, an enclave of more than twenty-five youth from the Diocese of Tonj, who were brought by the Rt. Rev. Peter Yuol to continue their schooling in Kitale, Kenya.
They excel as top students in their classes and even have become supreme prefect captains of their Kenyan schools. In addition to nine Hope House student sponsorships funded by churches and individuals in Virginia and beyond, their collective household in Kitale needs substantial funding each month for food and supplies. Having a strong home base has proven just as important as school fees for building a community of faithful youth who will return to South Sudan to further its progress. This partnership is expanding, as we now have volunteers from Grace Church in Lexington, Virginia tutoring Hope House students in Kenya over Zoom!
The key to these efforts? “Connecting diverse communities through creating sustainable partnerships for cultivating prosperity and peace” –the mission statement of Diversity Serves, a non-profit formed upon my return from South Sudan to facilitate these projects. We in the U.S. need to be reminded how easy it is to make an impact, even when we are confined to our homes through a pandemic and not able to visit. We can make a difference on collective lives in South Sudan when invited to do so, all the while enriching our own lives immeasurably here in the U.S. — through divinely inspired connections.
Dr. Susan Mead is President of Diversity Serves, Inc. and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ferrum College, Ferrum, Virginia, whose motto is “Not Self, but Others”. She can be reached at svm@diversityserves.org or smead@ferrum.edu and tel. 540-365-4611
News and Notes
Wildfire in Maridi
The Diocese of Maridi faced another wildfire March 13-14. The diocesan guesthouse was destroyed. Deacon Patti Johnson and Dave Malson of the Diocese of Albany reported from conversations with Bishop Moses Zungo:
“Archbishop Peni led the bishops on an evangelism tour in December, ending in Maridi. Then the Mothers’ Union had a conference, then they had the Synod, and then… the fires. The rainy season had lasted ten months, and the water table was so high the crops were rotting. Then it dried out, and the wildfires started. In Maridi diocese, sixty-eight families were left homeless, one child perished in the fires (8-year-old), and many food storage places were destroyed. The mango trees are not producing. They are facing famine… Bishop Moses said, ‘Satan is not happy with what is happening here’ because they have a five-year plan: “Transforming individuals and community”. In 2022 they will be celebrating 100 years of Christianity in Maridi, so we are praying God will open doors for us to go in January for the celebration.”
The Episcopal Diocese of Albany (address: 580 Burton Road, Greenwich, NY 12834) has sustained a long companion relationship with the Diocese of Maridi, including the tenures of retired Bishop William H. Love and the current Archbishop of South Sudan Justin Badi Arama.
Contact: albanymissions@gmail.com or Dave Malsan at crazydog6@outlook.com.
A Reflection from the AFRECS Board Meeting:
Can an Organization be a Friend?
Individual Actors and Group Actors under God
This excerpt from the 1867 novel Robert Falconer, by the Scottish poet George Macdonald, was presented recently by the Reverend James Hubbard for reflection by the AFRECS Board.
“Then Falconer began to see that he must cultivate relations with other people in order to enlarge his means of helping the poor. He nowise abandoned his conviction that whatever good he sought to do or lent himself to aid must be effected entirely by individual influence. He had little faith in societies, regarding them chiefly as a wretched substitute, just better than nothing, for that help which the neighbor is to give to his neighbor. Finding how the unbelief of the best of the poor is occasioned by hopelessness in privation, and the sufferings of those dear to them, he was confident that only the personal communion of friendship could make it possible for them to believe in God. Christians must be in the world as He was in the world; and in proportion as the truth radiated from them, the world would be able to believe in him. Money he saw to be worse than useless, except as a gracious outcome of human feelings and brotherly love….
But he must not therefore act as if he were the only person who could render this individual aid, or as if men influencing the poor individually could not aid each other in their individual labors. He soon found, I say, that there were things he could not do without help. “
Other News from Various Sources
Naivasha, Kenya: Peace talks between South Sudan’s government and opposition groups
Peace talks between South Sudan’s government and a set of opposition groups kicked off in Naivasha, Kenya, in early March.
General Paul Malong and Pagan Amum each lead one faction of the rebel umbrella South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA). It is made up of two organizations, the Real Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (R-SPLM) and the South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A).
In January 2020, both sides had signed a peace declaration in which they recommitted to the cessation of hostilities and called for uninterrupted humanitarian access to the local and international organizations and for abstention from sexual and gender-based violence. In Naivasha they recommitted to that declaration and agreed to join the Transitional Government of National Unity at a date to be determined.
Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin, Chief Negotiator for the Government of South Sudan, reiterated the unity government’s commitment to dialogue and peace in South Sudan.
Pagan Amum, leader of the Real Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (R-SPLM), said: “This is time to genuinely learn from our experiences, from our few and limited successes, and from our so many mistakes. I would like to express our commitment as SSOMA that we have come here with open hearts and genuine commitment to seeking a genuine solution to the problem in our country.”
Paul Malong, leader of the South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A), reiterated their commitment to dialogue to reach a peace agreement. He thanked all regional and international partners for supporting South Sudan to achieve peace and stability.
The Bari leader, Gen. Thomas Cirillo, head of the National Salvation Front, remains a holdout from the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R/ARCSS). His forces operate in the Equatoria region.
Abstracted from Radio Tamazuj 03/11/2021
Eye Radio
104 More people catch the dreaded virus
by Daniel Danis 03/12/2021
A total of 104 people has now died in South Sudan due to coronavirus after one more death was reported on March 11. The Ministry of Health announced 129 new cases it confirmed between March 10 and 11. There are reportedly three people under critical conditions, who are receiving treatment.
According to statistics released yesterday, the new cases are from 1,008 samples collected across the country. This brings the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the country to 9,334. South Sudan has so far conducted 119,507 tests since the coronavirus was detected in April 2020.
CGTN
UN: Urgent funding needed to address needs of 6.6 million people in South Sudan
by Grace Kuria 03/16/2021
The South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan for 2021 has on Tuesday been launched, with the plan requesting US$1.7 billion to reach 6.6 million people in South Sudan with urgent life-saving assistance and protection by the end of 2021.
This year, South Sudan is expected to yet again experience devastating flooding which affected almost 1 million people in both 2019 and 2020. The ongoing sub-national violence and localized conflicts in many parts of the country, combined with the disruptive impacts of the COVID-19 on markets, services, and movements, are said to have led to a substantial increase in vulnerabilities.
As a result, S. Sudan is facing its highest levels of food insecurity and malnutrition since independence 10 years ago. The upcoming lean season from May to July is expected to be the most severe on record.
“Conflict, displacement, loss of livelihoods, inability to reach health care and lack of access to schools have created urgent humanitarian and protection needs, especially for women and children,” Alain Noudéhou, the Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, said.
“Throughout these various shocks, the affected communities have continued to demonstrate a great sense of solidarity. I call on the Government, development partners, donors and aid organizations to match their solidarity with unwavering support,” the Humanitarian Coordinator added.
Noudéhou stated that urgent funding is needed to prevent a further deterioration of the situation, adding that violence too needs to stop so that the people of South Sudan can finally recover from the crisis and rebuild their lives.
Devex Inside Developments: South Sudan
South Sudan facing highest ever levels of food insecurity
By Rumbi Chakamba 03/17/2021
South Sudan is facing the highest levels of food insecurity and malnutrition since it declared independence 10 years ago. An estimated 7.7 million people will need food assistance.
The country’s 2021 humanitarian response plan, released Tuesday by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), states that “the latest food security analysis estimates that the lean season [April to July], will be the worst … ever.” Approximately 108,000 people are predicted to be in phase 5, which on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, scale, indicates catastrophe or famine and is the highest possible classification.
Anthony Rama, Tearfund’s South Sudan country director, said, “about half the population is in dire need of food assistance. We have endured years of intercommunal conflicts and now COVID has … weakened our fragile health system’s ability to treat people.” Rama added that there are severe food shortages in all the geographical areas where his organization works and that it is now targeting relief only in those regions for which the IPC has classified the severity of food insecurity as phase 4 or phase 5.
OCHA is requesting $1.7 billion to reach 6.6 million people with urgent life-saving assistance and protection by the end of the year. “Our immediate priorities include sustaining our response in the most food insecure areas and preparing for the upcoming rainy season, which is forecasted to lead once again to major floods,” said Alain Noudéhou, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan. “But we need urgent funding to prevent a further deterioration of the situation.”
Crown of Thorns
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
We continue to be grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church in the Sudans. As we approach the sacred time of Holy Week and Easter, we hope you will consider another gift of whatever you can afford in this time of COVID — remembering our Lord’s generous gift of his life for us. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302
Please Note: AFRECS’ former address c/o Virginia Theological Seminary is no longer valid.
This issue of the AFRECS E-Blast was compiled by Board members Richard Jones and Caroline Klam.
Update from Dane Smith
We bring you in this issue a remarkable story of the Good Hope School in South Kordofan. Funds were collected in Denver in memory of the late Fr. Oja Gafour, a Sudanese priest from the region, who served many years at the Episcopal Cathedral in Denver. The funds were transmitted to South Kordofan by Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, Bishop of Kadugli, where they were used for a well-organized activity to promote the education of girls at the Good Hope School. AFRECS thanks Colorado donors and the Episcopal Foundation of Colorado and pays tribute to Bishop Andudu and the leaders of the Good Hope School.
A clue to the Biden Administration’s views on South Sudan came late February when U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaking as President of the UN Security Council, called on South Sudanese leaders to expedite implementation of the 2018 peace agreement. Noting rising inter-communal violence, she urged the South Sudanese Government to “accelerate the peace process, lower levels of violence and work with the UNMISS [peacekeeping force] to protect civilians.” She expressed concern that South Sudan was falling far short of ensuring that women constitute 35 percent of appointments in government, as required by the agreement, concluding that real transition of civil war required “full, effective and meaningful participation of women.”
Unfortunately, the US has not had an ambassador in Juba since the departure of Thomas Hushek in mid-2020. Likewise, no ambassador has been named to Khartoum even though Sudan’s late 2020 agreement to a settlement of claims related to the 1998 terrorist bombing of Embassies Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and its signature of the Abrahamic Accords with Israel set the stage for a formal exchange of ambassadors. These appointments presumably await the Biden Administration’s appointment of an Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and completion of an ongoing review of policy toward the Horn of Africa.
AFRECS is delighted to note the return to Juba of the Reverend Joseph Bilal, Acting Vice Chancellor of the Episcopal University and Chair of the Episcopal Primate’s Task Force on COVID-19. Dr. Bilal reports he has completely recovered from respiratory infections for which he was being treated in the UK.
Executive Director
A Brief Report on the Dr. Father Oja Gafour Fund for Hope Primary School
By the Rt. Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail
Hope Primary School is in Omdurain County, in South Kordofan State, Sudan. In the area controlled by Sudan People Liberation Movement-North (SPLM/N). The school was established in the year 2004. It is one of the Episcopal Church Schools owned by the Diocese of Kadugli. The second war in June 2011 affected the Education sector in Nuba Mountains and many schools were closed. Fortunately, Hope Primary School is still in operation but in a very challenging financial situation.
However, in April 2019, the Islamic government was ousted, and bombardment and battles stopped in the Nuba Mountains. The renewal of the ceasefire is continuing. There are still political tensions.
Last academic year, schools were closed because of Covid 19. But this academic year, schools opened in the normal time frame. We thank God there are no Coronavirus cases in Nuba Mountains. Thank God for the grace of health given to the Nuba People. We do continue to ask God for protection over the Nuba and other nations.
Relatively, schools in the Nuba Mountains are doing well due to the cease fire and the current political situation, which generated some peace among school children, and this has been reflected in students’ academic performance. All the eighth-grade students except one passed the national exams.
The school has 358 students enrolled, 195 girls and 163 boys in Preschool to 8th Grade. The staff includes eleven teachers, one water porter man, and two female cooks for the teachers.
The late Dr. Father Oja Gafour had a heart for the children and his people of Nuba Mountains. I worked with him for five years when I was in Colorado. Fr. Oja and I worked jointly with our dear friend Anita Sanborn of AFRECS. Funds were raised in honor of Dr. Father Gafour after his death and were transmitted to the Diocese of Kadugli to support the children in the Nuba Mountains. AFRECS transferred $ 6,202 to the Diocese of Kadugli Account in Juba. South Sudan.
When I arrived in Juba, we had a meeting in the Diocese of Kadugli office to choose one of the schools that would benefit from the fund. We selected Hope Primary School because it has a more significant number of female students.
I met with the school administration at Hope Primary School and shared with them Dr. Father Oja Gafour’s work with Anita among the Sudanese in the Diocese of Colorado. It was a good meeting. They have decided to use the money to cover the salaries of several teachers and staff, for some food supplies for teachers, and for materials to make menstrual supplies for the schoolgirls in Hope Primary School through sewing centers sponsored by the Diocese of Kadugli. Necessary materials for hygiene management during menstruation have been scarce to non-existent in Nuba Mountains. As a result, young schoolgirls miss several days of school each month, negatively affecting their academic performance.
On behalf of Hope Primary School and the Diocese of Kadugli, with gratitude, I thank Anita Sanborn for her work and support for the people of Nuba in diaspora and Africa. And heartily thank AFRECS for facilitating funds and their immense support to Sudan and South Sudan. May God almighty bless the work of your hand.
Rt. Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail
Bishop of the Diocese of Kadugli
News and Notes
Teaching Financial Management in South Sudan
By Larry Duffee, Member of the AFRECS Board of Directors
My first effort to help build financial capacity in the Episcopal Church of Sudan (now Episcopal Church of South Sudan) began in the spring of 2011. I taught classes on math and administration to students in both years at Bishop Gwynne Theological College in Juba. BGC was populated with students from various dioceses (only 31 then, now 61!), many of whom were slated to become diocesan secretaries or administrators and who could benefit from management training. Many of the dioceses wanted to apply for grants for projects but knew they needed help learning how to account for funds, or they would be unable to attract grants. What I found were classes full of bright students well trained in the rote memorization that characterizes traditional Sudanese education, but who needed help developing critical thinking skills to apply their knowledge to real-life conditions where problems were non-standard.
Beyond my teaching at BGC, I made visits to many dioceses where I taught pastors and administrators basic bookkeeping skills and how to prepare simple income statements or reports accounting for grant funds. I was struck with how eager people were to learn these skills and how well they understood the importance of managing their resources. I especially tried to get local pastors and staff to appreciate was the fact that they were managing a business — a business that, when the Church’s assets in terms of lands and buildings were considered, was one of the largest in the country and needed to be managed seriously. I recall that I taught at the dioceses of Malakal, Wau, Aweil, Rejaf, Mundri, Lui, Maridi, Ibba, Yambio, Nzara and Ezo, and probably more.
Cultural differences became occasions for learning. When I would inform pastors how, when you enter any Church of England parish, there is a sign by the door clearly stating the costs for such things as weddings, baptisms and funerals, the pastors were aghast. They thought people would accuse them of wanting to profit off people’s deaths. I will never forget a pastor in Wau telling me how he had spent 12-hours conducting a funeral service and was not given so much as a bottle of water. In time the pastors began to understand that their time had value. I used to advise them, “If you hire a painter or carpenter to work on your house all day you expect to pay them, so why should pastors be expected to work for free?”
Part of the problem was an issue of trust. Wherever I taught, pastors stated that talking to their flocks about money would raise suspicions, that congregations were wary of why pastors needed money. I encouraged them to be transparent about their church’s receipts and expenses to develop trust. At that time, the attitude in the ECS was that parishioners did not need to know such things. I was happy that not long before I left South Sudan in 2020, at least at All Saints Cathedral in Juba included in the announcements a statement of how much had been collected at the different services the previous Sunday.
I had gone to Sudan in response to a request from Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul at the 2009 Rumbek Partners’ Conference (attended by Richard Parkins and Buck Blanchard of The Episcopal Church in the U.S.) for someone with management skills to come help get the Province’s financial systems in order. The Archbishop wanted the Province to better support healthcare, schools, and leading peace-building efforts in the country. I was supposed to be in Sudan for only four months. In the end I remained with the ECS nearly 3-years. My time visiting dioceses was some of the most rewarding and enjoyable of all this time in South Sudan. More than one participant stated, “For the first time since Adam was made, we have been given this knowledge.” Wonderful praise indeed!
The Rev. Robin Denney’s Webinar on Sudan and South Sudan
By Frederick E. Gilbert
Before she graduated from the Virginia Theological Seminary and became a priest and rector, Robin Denney served as an Episcopal Church Agricultural Missionary during the two years preceding the 2011 referendum that led to South Sudan’s becoming the world’s newest independent country. Her work was to supervise the development of pilot farms for the province, train clergy, assist the bishops in conducting agricultural assessments of their dioceses, and conduct trainings in improved sustainable methods of agriculture with small scale farmers. That work took her to every state and diocese in South Sudan and gave her experiences and insights which she shares. In addition, she provides clear historical overviews of Sudan’s interactions with Pharaonic Egypt, Greeks, and Romans, early and medieval Christianity, its conquest by Moslem empires, its time as a colony of Egypt and Great Britain and its history since gaining its independence in 1956. This YouTube video is a recording of a live conversation she held with her parish on the 10th anniversary of the referendum vote (1-9-2021) and provides a highly interesting introduction to Sudan and South Sudan.
To view it, click on the link below.
Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?
A Sudan Reading List
Richard Jones, Member of the AFRECS Board of Directors
1. Andrew S. Natsios, Sudan, South Sudan, & Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know
2012, Oxford University Press, 256 pages. Natsios served as USAID Administrator 2001-2005 and US Special Envoy for Sudan 2006-7.
2. Edward Eremugo Kenyi, Sacrifice and other Short Stories
2020, Africa World Books, 133 pages. Kenyi is a public health physician and poet, currently working at Johns Hopkins University; stories are set mostly in South Sudan and Khartoum, with one in Washington, DC and one in outer space.
3. Zack Vertin, The Rope from the Sky: The Making and Unmaking of the World’s Newest State
2019, Pegasus Books, 497 pages. Vivid descriptions of Sudanese leaders and villagers woven into a coherent chronology of US diplomatic work between 2005 and 2016, as witnessed by a notetaker for the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan.
4. Francis M. Deng, War of Visions: Conflict of Identities in the Sudan
1995, Brookings Institution, 577 pages. Sociological and historical analysis of ethnic and political background of conflict, 1860-1992, including detail on the Ngok Dinka.
News from Other Sources
Sudan Tribune
Church Leaders call for peace and stability in South Sudan
02/23/2021
The South Sudan Council of Churches called on the government to take steps to promote peace, security and national cohesion as the country celebrates the first anniversary of the creation of its Transitional Government of National Unity.
The appeal is contained a joint statement issued by the South Sudan Council of Churches, Civil Society Forum and South Sudan Women’s Coalition. Noted the statement, “This is not the first time we have called on the same leaders to fulfil their responsibility to their country and the citizens of the nation”. It added, “Unfortunately, these calls have not yet yielded any meaningful change to the ongoing crisis in the country and the living conditions of the common citizens.”
Acknowledging the reduction of military confrontations among parties to the peace agreement, including positive steps to hold armed forces accountable for crimes against civilians and the reconstitution of the executive of the unity government, the joint statement signatories said they are “deeply disturbed that the overall situation has not convincingly improved.”
The church leaders also expressed concerns about the “devastating intercommunal violence, displacement of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, unnecessary roadblocks for extorting money and inflicting pain on travelers and humanitarian workers, alongside an economy that falters with soaring inflation rates.”
According to the statement, parties “remain recalcitrant to implementation of the 35% affirmative action quota” which obliges them to legally uphold women representation and participation in the peace deal implementation.
Voice of America: South Sudan Focus
Women’s Representation in South Sudan State Governments
Misses Mandated 35%
March 4, 2021 By: Seba Martin Murangi
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – Women’s and human rights activists in South Sudan say parties to the 2018 peace deal are violating a provision that calls for 35% of government positions at all levels to be allocated to women.
President Salva Kiir’s decree reconstituting Western Equatoria state’s government was read on state television on February 25. Out of 17 ministers appointed to the state Cabinet, only four are women. Out of 10 county commissioners, only two are women. All five state advisers are men. Although seven women were appointed commissioners on independent commissions, all five chairpersons of the commissions are men.
Tambura County women’s activist Clementina Anite said that while she is pleased the parties are finally forming a state government, she is concerned about women’s representation. “The concern is we are talking about our representation of 35% of women in all entities because women are educated in South Sudan and all-over public places like the market, you find almost 100% of them trying to make a living. The more we are represented, women can do a lot,” Anite told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. “While most seem to agree women should be equitably represented in government, the appointing authorities often do not put that belief into practice”, said Anite.
Jackline Nasiwa, founder of the Center for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice in South Sudan, said the 35% participation of women provided for in the peace deal was “far from being met.” Out of the six reconstituted state governments, Western Equatoria state has the highest number of women appointed to high-ranking positions. “The few women who have been appointed so far make up less than 20% at the national and state levels. In some states including Warrap, Jonglei, Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and Unity state, women representation is 11% to 17% while at the county level, women make up only 2%,” Nasiwa told South Sudan in Focus.
Information minister and government spokesperson Michael Makuei denied Kiir’s office was part of the candidate selection process, saying it was the responsibility of the state governors and the chairpersons in the various parties to the peace deal. “We had some allocation of portfolios. As to who would occupy them, [that] was not our problem. This was the office of the governor’s and the chairperson of the parties, not the office of the president,” Makuei told South Sudan in Focus.
Mary Nawai, who represents Ibba County at the National Legislative Assembly, said she is disappointed to see women so poorly represented in the new Western Equatoria state government, even though the law requires that women be represented as part of affirmative action. Nawai argues South Sudanese women are development-minded, noting most still manage to put food on the table despite the country’s economic crisis. She said women would perform as well as men or even better if appointed to government positions. “I am urging the state government to at least appoint a woman to the chair of the speaker so that we women can feel we are capable of holding top positions,” she said.
XinhuaNet
Safety and security of aid workers in South Sudan deteriorated in 2020
02/20/2021
JUBA– Nine aid workers were killed in South Sudan and more than 300 violent incidents reported in 2020 alone, the UN humanitarian agency said Friday. The deaths bring the total number of aid workers who have lost their lives since the east African nation plunged into civil war in 2013 to 124, according to a 2020 humanitarian access overview report released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Juba.
OCHA attributed the increase in aid worker deaths to intensified sub-national violence, compounded by the intensity of ambushes against aid workers. “An increase in sub-national and localized violence, including the resumption of politicized conflict in parts of the country, impacted humanitarian operations and impeded humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people,” OCHA said. “Based on available information, the compromise of humanitarian access in 2020 was mainly as a result of active hostilities and violence against humanitarian workers and assets.”
South Sudan was ranked the most dangerous place to deliver aid, according to the Worker Security Report for 2018.
XinhuaNet
South Sudan faces acute food shortages as harvest falls by 50%
02/20/2021
JUBA, March 5 (Xinhua) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned Thursday that South Sudanese are facing life-threatening food shortages following last year’s drop in harvests. In its latest assessment they noted that communities in nine out of 10 states harvested on average 50 percent less cereal and vegetables in 2020 compared to 2019.
“Our assessment shows that climate shocks, combined with continuing conflict and armed violence, make the transition for communities from receiving food assistance to independent food production extremely difficult,” Robert Mardini, director-general of the ICRC said in a statement issued in Juba.
As the lean season begins, it said, tens of thousands of families, especially in Jonglei, Upper Nile, Warrap, Unity and Lakes States, are struggling for survival without an adequate harvest from 2020 and following the loss of other food reserves to conflict, armed violence and floods.
According to ICRC, a renewed outbreak of armed violence or the intensification of conflict would increase the chance of immediate, life-threatening food shortages for hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese. And combined with the impact of COVID-19 and climatic shocks, many South Sudanese in remote and vulnerable communities face challenging months ahead in 2021.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
We are grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. We hope you will consider an additional gift — of whatever you can afford in this time of COVID. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302
Please Note: AFRECS’ former address c/o Virginia Theological Seminary is no longer valid.
This issue of the AFRECS E-Blast was compiled by Caroline Klam.t was compiled by Board members Richard Jones, Steven Miles, and Caroline Klam.
Update from Dane Smith
South Sudan
The UN Commission on Human Rights in Sudan reports to the UN Human Rights Council that, despite a diminution of hostilities at the national level, “unprecedented levels of ethnically based violence threaten to spiral out of control because of lack of justice and accountability.” The Commission said that more than 75% of South Sudan is experiencing “murderous violence” at the local level. It cited some of the most brutal attacks of the past seven years as occurring in the Central Equatoria, Warrap, Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, surpassing the level in 2013 when civil war broke out.
A modest step toward dealing with the problem may have been taken last week when President Salva Kiir named state ministers, commission heads, and advisors for Central Equatoria State, hopefully launching the creation of functioning governments in all 10 states — apparently a highly centralized process. The input of the governor into these appointments is not clear.
In early February, the Government’s Task Force on COVID-19 imposed a new partial lockdown as new COVID-19 cases surged, including four new cases within the Office of the President. However, little information has emerged since about measures to mitigate the pandemic. Only 6600 cases have been reported with 86 deaths, but that is almost certainly a considerable undercount. On February 8, the Ministry of Health announced that the country would receive 800,000 Astra Zeneca vaccine doses by the end of the month, but there has not yet been confirmation of receipt.
In most parts of South Sudan students in the final year of secondary school sat for exams in December. However, exams were canceled in Jonglei and Unity states on the pretext that insecurity made them impossible in these areas under SPLM/IO control. However, a deal was apparently worked out with Riek Machar, and it was announced that exams were to take place in both states last week. Primary school students in the Juba area sat for exams in December.
Amid tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia, the Government of South Sudan signed in Addis Ababa last week a military agreement with Ethiopia. The agreement reportedly focuses on exchanges of information on military security, curbing illicit arms and human trafficking at border areas, and cooperation in areas of education and training.
Sudan
On February 8, Prime Minister Hamdok reshuffled his Cabinet to include representatives of rebel groups which signed the Juba Agreement. Most strikingly, the new Finance Minister is Jibril Ibrahim, head of the Justice & Equality Movement (JEM). The new Foreign Minister is Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, daughter of the late former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. Before joining the rebellion in Darfur, Jibril completed a doctorate in economics in Japan. I became well acquainted with him during negotiations of the Doha Agreement on Darfur in 2011 when he represented JEM and I was Senior Advisor for Darfur to the US Government. Two new ministers come from the military, while the rest represent the Force of Freedom and Change, the movement which ousted President Bashir and brought Hamdok to power.
Unfortunately, there appears to have been no progress in bringing the two rebel movements who refused to sign the Juba Agreement to a settlement. SPLM/al-Hilu charged February 21 that “the government has no will to reach peace.”
One of Jibril Ibrahim’s first actions was to devalue the Sudanese pound, a major demand of donor governments. The Crisis Group reports that protests have broken out in parts of Sudan over rapidly deteriorating living conditions, including rising prices of staple foods. Looting and arson caused several regions, including Darfur, North Kordofan, South Kordofan and Sennar, to declare states of emergency. Of course, the immediate effect of devaluation will be to spike prices for imported food. So further measures will be essential to ease the strain for the population.
Executive Director
SEE YOU THERE!
AFRECS will be attending (virtually, of course) the 2021 CEEP Networks Digital Annual Conference: The Church as Witness for a Time Such as This March 3-5. Look for our Sponsor “Booth” and come on in! Or search keyword; “Our Neighbors”, and you will be invited in.
See you there!
AFRECS School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors in POC3 Hopes to Grow from 350 to 500 Students
Since the School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors was founded with AFRECS’s funding four years ago, the School has become a magnet for students in Protection of Civilians Camp 3 (POC3) (now identified officially as an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camp). The School’s student body has grown from the original 50 to 350, and hopefully soon 500, with each student missing at least one, and often both, parents due to the civil conflict that began in 2013. The Episcopal Church of South Sudan, led by His Grace, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, and with the assistance of Bishop John Gatteck, has created a school that teaches and feeds children from grades one through eight with 180 girls and 170 boys.
Despite a shutdown due to COVID 19 restrictions, the students were able to complete three terms of instruction, sit the examinations for these terms and receive their report cards. With AFRECS’s support, some classrooms were refurbished during this period.
The expansion to 500 students will require the construction or refurbishment of semi-permanent classrooms, along with a kitchen and storeroom needed to feed the larger number of students. The expansion will also include construction of a fence around the school grounds to protect the teachers and students, and provision of wash facilities, water tanks, sanitizers, and soap.
The School has not only helped to feed and educate students, but it has also been a successful center for learning. Over 90% of students pass their final exams, and students from the School regularly are among the top performers on the nationalized standard exams.
We at AFRECS are deeply appreciative of all our donors and members for helping us to fulfill this critically important ministry. We welcome your support as we continue to show that the Church in South Sudan can make a positive difference in these children’s lives.
Other News from Various Sources
From Just Security
U. S. Can Change the Calculus for Peace in South Sudan
by Brian Adeba (February 13, 2021 – condensed by Richard Jones)
For more than two years, South Sudan’s leaders have engaged in stalling tactics that have stymied the implementation of the peace deal signed in September 2018. While President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar prolong the implementation of the peace deal, opportunities for good governance are being squandered.
Intractable problems, such as inter-ethnic blood feuds and militarized cattle raiding, cannot be resolved due to the lack of political leadership at the state level. In the first week of February alone, seven people died in inter-ethnic fighting in Lakes and Warrap states. The chief of staff of Machar’s rebel army refuses to set foot in the capital, indicating he is not happy with the security arrangements. A hybrid court stipulated in the peace deal will not be established on time, and critical evidence required for the prosecution of cases may be lost, making it more difficult to hold war criminals accountable. The failure to reconstitute the National Legislature within the first few months of the deal means that critical oversight on government budgets and spending is missing. There are no checks on impunity. Leaders are taking advantage of the chaos to increase their own wealth at the expense of the people.
Intermittent pressure from the international community has failed to spur change thus far. But with the Biden administration now in place, the United States has an unprecedented opportunity to change the calculus of South Sudan’s reticent leaders and prevent a return to violence.
The good news is that the Biden administration does not need to start from scratch. The toolkit for these measures already exists. The Global Magnitsky Act, anti-money laundering measures, asset freezes, and Treasury Department advisories are tools that, if deployed strategically, can dissuade self-serving leaders in South Sudan from further stalling progress in implementing the peace agreement.
The first step is to go after the spoilers who are undermining the peace agreement. These officials engage in human rights abuses such as the illegal arrest and detention of journalists and civil society activists. They introduce obstacles to stymie the implementation of the peace agreement—by rejecting outright all the candidates for office proposed by the opposition, for instance. Worse, they are complicit in violating signed ceasefires and attacking opponents’ positions. Just last year, in November, government and rebel troops accused one another of initiating attacks against the military and civilians alike. To send a clear message that impunity for such actions no longer reigns, the United States should expand its use of the Global Magnitsky Act with targeted measures against more individuals or entities, for example.
Next, the kleptocratic governance structure that fuels the war must be cracked. By deploying financial pressures against networks—targeting individual peace spoilers, their companies, and their international business associates—concurrently with anti-money laundering measures, asset freezes, and advisories, the Biden administration could maximize the possibility of meaningful outcomes.
In the past, targeted measures by the Treasury Department have been successful in effecting change: they were partly responsible for cajoling reluctant politicians to agree to sign the peace deal in 2018. With the buy-in of allies Britain and Norway, which have been guarantors to the peace process since 2014, as well as the European Union and African Union, these pressures can be applied in a concerted manner to change the calculus for war in South Sudan.
Such a strategy could, for instance, be tied to South Sudan achieving short- and long-term goals with clear benchmarks that leaders must deliver on within a specified timeline. Now, an urgent short-term goal could include achieving progress on stalled elements of the peace deal—such as the creation of unified armed forces—and completing the formation of government at the state level. Future stability in South Sudan depends entirely on good governance marked by independent and effective institutions that can hold officials accountable, so a long-term diplomatic strategy could be connected to achieving progress on the institutional reforms spelled out in Chapter IV of the peace agreement.
Along with financial pressure, the United States could reinvigorate its diplomatic track by appointing a highly respected senior diplomat as a special envoy who would have clout and respect in East Africa and the Horn of Africa. That would signal to leaders responsible for the South Sudanese conflict that Washington accords a high priority to realizing a serious peace.
If the United States takes concrete steps to counter the incentive structure, the world’s youngest country may finally have a chance at peace.
https://www.justsecurity.org/
United States Institute of Peace
What Does Sudan’s New Cabinet Mean for its Transition?
The Cabinet has a golden opportunity to build political consensus and address citizens’ concerns.
Monday, February 8, 2021 / By: Joseph Tucker (Abstracted)
The announcement on February 8 of a new Cabinet in Khartoum—the product of a peace accord signed by Sudan’s transitional government with several armed groups in October 2020 through a deal brokered by South Sudan—offers hope that the broader inclusion of political leaders can help address Sudan’s pressing challenges and create peace dividends.
Twenty-five ministers were announced. The ministers of defense and interior hail from the security sector as previously agreed between the government’s civilian and military factions. Other posts have gone to high-profile political leaders—for example, Gibril Ibrahim from Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement has been appointed finance minister and Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi from the Umma Party is the new foreign minister.
Building Confidence in Peace and Power-Sharing
For those ministers representing armed movements, it will be important to build trust with citizens that may view them as closer to Sudan’s security elements than the nonviolent street revolutionaries who ended Bashir’s nearly 30-year grip on power. A way to achieve this is for the Cabinet to begin implementing the complex October 2020 peace deal and ensure that the public understands the agreement’s national impact.
Urgent Decisions or Paralysis?
Having reached consensus on political representation, the new Cabinet will need to quickly show that its broad coalition of forces can work closely with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to address key issues. It is also important for the Cabinet to have the strong backing of Hamdok and key officials in his office to take unpopular decisions when needed. Some key issues are: unifying exchange rates and continuing to reform subsidies; engaging with military leaders to begin security sector reform that prioritizes citizens’ security; reenergizing negotiations for a more comprehensive peace that includes important armed movements from South Kordofan and Darfur; navigating legitimate demands for transitional justice and accountability; and outlining a foreign policy that defuses regional tensions—especially with Ethiopia and also due to the ongoing Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations—and reappraises Sudan’s relationship with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and other Gulf states.
During Bashir’s National Congress Party era, political and armed actors appointed to Cabinets were often viewed as collaborators with neither independence nor authority. Now, the opposite appears true; current ministers represent several sources of power and some can mobilize constituencies in support of, or against, decisions. It will be imperative for such ministers to indicate that they collectively represent the diverse landscape of Sudanese political, geographic, and social groups. More importantly, they must show through action, not just rhetoric, that such diversity can be harnessed to address the root causes of Sudan’s conflicts.
An Historic Time in Sudan
Sudan is going through a once-in-a-generation transition that touches every facet of life, from the role of marginalized communities in political decisions to economic choices that will shape the country for decades. Sudanese are creating space to debate issues central to the idea of Sudan as a nation, such as the relationship between religion and the state. Recent months have seen the reentry of Sudan into the community of nations through growing international support for reforms and early efforts to address the country’s staggering debt burden in the wake of the December 2020 removal of Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States.
However, the country remains beset with economic crises and food shortages and citizens again took to the streets in recent weeks to protest rising costs and commodity shortages. Sudan faces continued conflict in Darfur, growing political unease in the east and the specter of regional war with Ethiopia.
The Potential of Politics
If the new Cabinet can rise to the occasion, it has a golden opportunity to become a model for political consensus-building and equitable decision-making in Sudan. Whereas the previous Cabinet’s ministers were selected for their technocratic capabilities and seemingly apolitical stances, this new Cabinet is arguably one of the most politicized governing bodies in Sudanese history.
A united Cabinet can show that astute political leadership matched with continued reform of government institutions can produce a winning combination for managing diversity and preventing conflict in fragile states like Sudan. The Cabinet’s coherence and its ability to define roles among ministries and publicly articulate an agenda for the transition will be important for the overall functioning of the transitional government. This can also set a foundation for strong engagement with the international community on possible support and mutually accountable partnerships.
A well-functioning Cabinet can demonstrate to Sudanese that politicians are capable of governing and reduce the perennial unleashing of military coups that have plagued Sudan’s prior civilian governments. However, if leaders carry political conflicts and ideological rivalries with them into the Cabinet, this could decisively imperil an already tenuous transition and restart the cycle of conflict that Sudan and the region can ill afford.
https://www.usip.org/
From Sudan Tribune
South Sudan issues new banknotes amid rising inflation
February 9, 2021 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s Central Bank on Tuesday issued a 1,000 South Sudanese Pound banknote as it struggles with hyperinflation amid dwindling foreign reserves.
Speaking to reporters in the capital, Juba, the Central Bank governor, Dier Tong Ngor said the bank will henceforth embark on a nationwide campaign to educate the public on the new notes.
“It is in the view of the need to make our currency more convenient to use that we are today introducing the SSP 1000 banknote into circulation to complement the existing banknotes to ensure convenience and bring about efficiency in the printing of currency to generate savings for the country,” he explained.
Ngor said the world youngest nation has, in the past few years, grappled with how to address a situation characterized by high inflation, including perpetual depreciation of the currency which has eroded public confidence and monetary value of the banknotes.
“This new higher value denomination will only partially restore the dollar value of SSP 10 in 2011 but is high enough to significantly reduce the deadweight loss and high transaction cost in making high-value purchases in a cash-based economy like South Sudan,” he stressed.
Several economists have questioned the impact the new banknote will have on economic recovery, citing further destabilization of consumer prices and acceleration of inflationary behaviors.
South Sudan depends on oil revenue for 98% of its budget, but production has since decreased significantly due to a political conflict which erupted in December 2013, causing most oil companies to cease explorative plans, and shut down operations in the oil field.
https://sudantribune.com/spip.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT! Help is always needed.
We continue to be grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact. You make a difference in 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 time of COVID — as we begin our new program year You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302
Please Note: AFRECS’ former address c/o Virginia Theological Seminary is no longer valid.
This issue of the AFRECS E-Blast was compiled by Board members Richard Jones, Steven Miles, and Caroline Klam.
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
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.
