Author: AmerFriendSudan

Update from Dane Smith 

South Sudan. Negotiations in Rome under the auspices of Sant’Egidio, the lay Catholic peacebuilding organization, have made further progress toward bringing the forces of Pagan Amum (Real SPLM) and Gen. Paul Malong (South Sudan United Front) into the R/ARCSS peace agreement. They signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing to enter the 2017 Ceasefire Verification Mechanism and to an agenda for further talks under Sant’Egidio.  The other major holdout, Gen. Thomas Cirillo, leader of the National Salvation Front (NSF), is not as far along as the others but has said he will join the ceasefire mechanism when NSF recommits to the 2017 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in upcoming negotiations.

In other news the Troika (governments of US, UK, and Norway) has rebuked the South Sudanese Government for the shutdown by security forces of a July 17 civil society discussion of the constitutional history of South Sudan, held under the auspices of the South Sudan Civil Society Forum.  The Troika called for freedom of assembly and termed necessary an open and inclusive constitution-making process.  UN Mission Chief Nicholas Haysom noted July 26 that 42 people accused of criminal activity had been executed this year without a fair trial.  He said he was deeply concerned about this spate of extra-judicial executions.

Sudan. There is continuing burgeoning displacement in West Darfur, where fighting continues between the Masalit and Arab groups.  There are reportedly more than 80 camps of displaced people. The number of displaced (hundreds of thousands) has grown rapidly in the wake of the gradual withdrawal since December of the UN peace force (UNAMID).  UN forces are supposed to be replaced by 20,000 Sudanese troops, but that has not yet happened.

Francis Deng’s Wisdom. I would like to call our readers’ attention to the article this month by Francis M. Deng, one of South Sudan’s most distinguished citizens, on the 10th anniversary of the country’s independence.  Before independence he served as Sudan’s ambassador to the US and Canada, and later as the UN Special Rapporteur on Displaced Persons (1992-2004) and UN Special Advisor on Genocide (2007-2012).  After independence he was South Sudan’s first ambassador to the UN.  He is the author of 40 books on international affairs and two novels about Sudan.

His article highlights three themes:  the interplay in South Sudan of internal and external forces; the post-independence crises a power struggle between leaders and their associates led to the relative neglect of the rest of the country; and the need for collaborative efforts of the South Sudanese with international partners.  He argues, “We must prioritize taking peace to the countryside to end inter-communal violence, ensure the security of rural areas, encourage people to return to their villages, and give them essential … tools … to generate self-reliant development. … Well-grounded strategic optimism must be the only way forward.”  To see the entire article, visit “Clearing the Dimming Vision of the Liberation of South Sudan,” https://suddinstitute.org

The Nubans.  On a slightly lighter side, take a look at the article below on the Nuba people of Sudan and their attachment to secularism — an article which begins with a sketch on wrestling.  During my time in Sudan in the 1980s, a particular Saturday pleasure was to watch Nuba wrestling in an open area outside Khartoum.  Those weekly contests are still going on.  Nubans, who originate from the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan (and should not be confused with Nubians), are now well represented in major cities in Sudan.  Nubans are both Christian and Muslim, but aside from the Copts, they constitute the largest group of Sudanese Christians.

In addition to the congregations of the Episcopal Dioceses of Kadugli and El-Obeid, Nubans today also belong to Episcopal congregations in Port Sudan, Wad Medani, and Khartoum.

Executive Director

News and Notes

The Rev. Bob North’s 60 year “Journey” to South Sudan

The Rev. Robert North (from the Mirror Democrat)

Father Bob North’s “journey” to South Sudan began over 60 years ago with a three-month college study trip to Africa.  Almost 50 years later, Father Bob and his wife Karen made plans to return to Africa following an invitation from the bishop of the new Diocese of Nzara in South Sudan.  Bishop Samuel Peni (now Archbishop) invited them to help bring to reality the vision for the newly formed diocese.  Bishop Peni had spent the first year of the diocese working with the clergy and people in prayer to map out where they believed God was leading them – their call for the early years was evangelism, health, and education.  With the support of his parish, Grace Church, Galena, Illinois and other gifts he and Karen prepared to leave for a year in Nzara, bringing with them donations of $75,000 raised for their work.  In that first year, which extended to two with the help of the national church and the grace of their parish, they purchased motorcycles for the diocesan staff, a used dump truck, various supplies and equipment including two cement block makers!  Karen soon began teaching English and Bob became a building contractor, designing the buildings, buying the supplies, and supervising volunteers from the diocese in the construction of a Diocesan Center with 4 offices, a Conference Center, four health clinics, a computer center, and pre-school which grew into a full primary school.  From the perspective of a few years, Father Bob now says, “Never did I imagine that as a missionary I would primarily end up building things.  I had always imagined myself teaching in an overseas seminary or college.’

After two years in Nzara, Father Bob and Karen returned to the U.S., but continued work in fundraising for various projects in Nzara.  In 2019, with the help of funds from the United Thank Offering (UTO) and various Episcopal churches and donors, a new Birthing Center was built at the main health clinic in Nzara providing room for mothers to deliver in safety with the help of certified Midwives and Birthing Assistants.  In addition, they provided bicycles so the staff can make prenatal visits, and 4 additional classrooms each for the preschool and primary schools.

Midwives and Traditional Birthing Attendants with new bicycles provided
by the United Thank Offering of The Episcopal Church in front of the new Birthing Center.

The Norths have hosted both Bishop Peni and his successor, Bishop Richard Aquilla, when they visited St. Mark’s Church, Maquoketa, Iowa where Fr. North now serves. The Diocese of Iowa has twice given Fr. Bob the opportunity to return to Nzara.  On each of these trips he has renewed his deep bonds with the bishops, diocesan staffs, and the many clergy and laypersons whom he and Karen met during their initial service.  These relationships are ultimately what diocesan companionship is all about.  Fr. Bob says, “I count it a privilege to have once been summoned by the drums to go to the Nzara Cathedral each morning for prayers, to sing the hymns in Zande, and to have preached from the cathedral’s pulpit on numerous occasions. What a joy it is to see familiar faces, to hear and watch the various cathedral choirs sing and dance, and to celebrate the American Book of Common Prayer service, which is used at the English service every Sunday.”

A journey that began over sixty years ago, and that became more narrowly focused ten years ago, has borne great fruit in furthering God’s work in a remote corner of God’s world.

Other News from Various Sources

From PRI World News   July 21, 2021
After the revolution, a secular Sudan?
By Halima Gikandi

The Nuba rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) are negotiating with the transitional government, and reviving an age-old issue in Sudan: secularism, or the separation between religion and the state.

It’s more than 100 degrees in Khartoum, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of people from gathering in an open field to watch athletes wrestle each other to the sandy ground. Many of the young wrestlers, and the audience for that matter, come from the Nuba Mountains, where this style of wrestling originates.

Wrestlers circle each other at a match in Khartoum, Sudan. Credit: Halima Gikandi/The World

“Those people ruled us for 30 years in the name of religion, in the name of Islam,” said Mansoor Dawood, a Muslim wrestler from Nuba.

The Nuba Mountains in Sudan’s South Kordofan region is made up of predominantly Black African tribes who are religiously diverse — consisting of Christians, Muslims, and animists alike. Mixed families are common. For years, Nuba rebels fought against the aggressive regime of former President Omar al-Bashir, which pushed a strict Islamic and Arab version onto a diverse country. In 1993, he declared a holy war (jihad) against the region — calling them enemies to Muslims and Arabs. But the 2019 uprising that saw Bashir removed from power has brought a chance for peace.

“As a guy from [the] Nuba Mountains, I support that,” Dawood said. “We need secularism in Sudan, so we can get out of that nonsense,” he added, referring to the violent military campaign against the Nuba. Earlier this year, the government and SPLM-N signed a principles agreement, declaring that Sudan has no state religion.

The policies of the previous regime under Bashir claiming that the majority are Muslim in Sudan, and therefore, the governing system should be based on Islam created problems not only with the people of the Nuba Mountains. The consequences of these policies, which failed to account for Sudan’s diversity, came to a head 10 years ago, when Christians in the south voted to secede and form South Sudan.

Many people from Nuba fear there’s a risk of other parts of the country breaking away, or of ongoing conflict, if Sudan is not able to take religious ideology out of government affairs. On the other hand, many Muslims in Sudan are wary of secularization and think the pace of change is too fast.

People gathered for Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque in Khartoum, Sudan. Credit: Mohamed Noureldin Abdallah/The World

Any issue regarding the future direction of the country should be left to a government mandated by the people,” said Professor Hassan Elhaj Ali Ahmed, political scientist at the University of Khartoum. He argued that the transitional government is going down a slippery slope by trying to “de-Islamicize” the country so quickly and he warns that if the government makes too many changes on social and identity issues, they risk a backlash from religious conservatives.

From The Washington Post   July 25, 2021
By James Ellingworth
Sudan, South Sudan athletes on Refugee team at Tokyo Olympics

The IOC Olympic Refugee Team march in the opening ceremony at the Tokyo Olympics 2021. From Twitter @Olympics

The Refugee Olympic Team was created by the International Olympic Committee for the 2016 Olympics to allow athletes to keep competing even if they have been forced to leave their home countries. Both South Sudan with 4 athletes and Sudan with 1 athlete are represented on the 2021 Refugee Olympic Team.  Both countries are also represented by their own Olympic Committees with 5 athletes from Sudan competing in Track and Field, Judo, Rowing and Swimming: and 2 athletes from South Sudan both competing in Track and Field.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/explainer-how-team-of-refugee-athletes-made-it-to-olympics/2021/07/25/79430af0-ed18-11eb-a2ba-3be31d349258_story.html

From Eye Radio   July 20, 2021
By Charles Wote
From Radio Tamazuj   July 27, 2021
Deep concerns arise over increased violence in Western Equatoria

Violent attacks on villagers and the residence of a traditional local chief in the new Western Equatoria State preceded the expected arrival July 25 in Yambio, the capital, of a newly appointed Governor, General Alfred Futuyo Karaba, a nominee of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement in Opposition. The new Governor speaks Balanda, while the majority of Western Equatoria residents speak Zande. A meeting of military commanders convened in Juba by First Vice-President Riek Machar had ordered that SPLM-IO forces in Western Equatoria should be relocated and integrated with South Sudan Defense Forces. Various government mediators have been convening community meetings to address the grievances and suffering of thousands of civilians displaced by armed men from Tambura and other towns. Speaking of the worsening situation on behalf of an interchurch council, Archbishop Samuel Peni of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan called on political leaders to avoid “irresponsible comments and incitement”.   He added, “As the church, we are raising this concern to our state government, to our national government, so they can address this matter. People are just being killed.”
https://eyeradio.org/clerics-deeply-concerned-by-atrocities-in-tambura-urged-govt-to-intervene/
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/tambura-unrest-more-than-4-000-people-displaced-by-fresh-attacks

From Anadolu Agency   July 19, 2021
By Benjamin Takpiny
South Sudan runs out of COVID-19 Vaccine

Health authorities in South Sudan said that the country has run out of COVID-19 vaccines after exhausting the supply of AstraZeneca doses it received from the COVAX facility in March this year. John Rumunu, director-general for preventive health services in the Ministry of Health, said they have officially ended vaccinations across the country. He said South Sudan has vaccinated 56,989 people since the country launched its vaccination campaign. South Sudan has so far reported 10,959 infections and 117 deaths.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/south-sudan-runs-out-of-covid-19-vaccines/2308488

From Eye Radio   July 26, 2021
By Jale Richard
From Sudans Post   July 27, 2021
Insecurity, fragile political situation top UN’s election assessment report

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres [Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images]

In a report submitted to the UN Security Council on July 16, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, released the needs assessment for elections in South Sudan, highlighting the need for progress in security, and legal framework before elections are held.
He raised concerns over a fragile security situation and a challenging political and socio-economic environment that he says tempers the aspirations for peaceful and credible elections.  He indicated that South Sudan will – from now – need two more years beyond the timeline provided for in the revitalized peace agreement, to conduct credible, free, and fair elections.

The report states, “Electoral operations in South Sudan will be extremely complex and lengthy, given the infrastructure challenges, security concerns, inability to access large parts of the country during the rainy season, illiteracy rate and difficulty for many South Sudanese to prove their age and citizenship.”

“The parties to the peace process will likely rely on the assistance of the United Nations, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Troika (the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Norway), the European Union and others to move forward,” it adds, before saying, “The ongoing cooperation to support the implementation of the peace agreement will assume even greater importance in the context of elections.”
(Link to the full UN report: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/S_2021_661_E.pdf)
https://eyeradio.org/insecurity-fragile-political-situation-top-uns-election-assessment-report-for-s-sudan/
https://eyeradio.org/insecurity-fragile-political-situation-top-uns-election-assessment-report-for-s-sudan/

From The Washington Post and the Associated Press   July 22, 2021
For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation

Paska Itwari Beda, the young mother of five children, is on the phone at her Juba, South Sudan home. (AP Photo/Adrienne Surprenant)

Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food

In South Sudan, lives are built and teeter on the edge of uncertainty. A peace deal to end the civil war lags far behind schedule. Hunger haunts more than half the population of 12 million people

Yet many women say it’s the pain of the pandemic they feel most — a slow-moving disaster, in contrast to the sudden trauma of war and its fallout of famine — as they try to hold families together in what is already one of the world’s most difficult places to raise children.

With COVID-19 came the shrinking of humanitarian aid, a lifeline for many in South Sudan, as faraway donors turned attention and funding toward their own citizens instead. A lockdown wiped out the informal, untaxed labor and other work that many South Sudanese relied on for their daily meal.

Beda’s husband, a teacher who had long supported the family with his steady salary — abruptly stopped getting a paycheck. Beda’s family, like many in South Sudan, was suddenly without its breadwinner.

Beda wants more for her children than she had for herself. She witnessed five years of civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people. She never finished her schooling, instead becoming pregnant with her first child. Beda is determined that her children will have more.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-south-sudan-mothers-covid-19-shook-a-fragile-foundation/2021/07/22/316527c4-eab4-11eb-a2ba-3be31d349258_story.html

As we move through the beauty of summer, we thank you for continuing to remember our friends in the Sudans!

We are deeply that 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 taking a few minutes from your summer activities to consider a gift to the struggling people of the Sudans — of whatever you can afford in this time of COVID and increasing disruption. 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.

AFRECS Editors encourage readers to submit their news for publication; the next deadline is August 3, 2021, please submit your news to Caroline Klam at klamcd21@gmail.com.

Update from Dane Smith 

There have been numerous media commentaries about South Sudan on the occasion of its tenth anniversary of independence — most of them tritely lamenting the “tragic” evolution of nationhood and a lack of progress on governance.  Messages from some international leaders are worthy of mention.  The letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury and Moderator of the Church of Scotland mentioned “some small progress” on the 2018 peace agreement (R/ARCSS) but said “your people continue to live in fear and uncertainty and lack confidence that their nation can indeed deliver the ‘justice, liberty and prosperity in your national anthem.”  It recalled the meeting that brought President Kiir and Vice President Machar to the Vatican in 2019 and expressed the hope that the promises made there “will shape your actions.”

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the US Government to work with its European and other partners and African stakeholders to “rehabilitate the broken South Sudan peace process.”  He called on Washington to appoint an experienced ambassador to Juba, to place additional sanctions on South Sudanese political actors, to oppose budget support to South Sudan from international financial institutions, and to pursue alternative justice and accountability mechanisms since the hybrid court called for by the peace agreement remains in limbo.

The South Sudan Council of Churches reports several peace initiatives during the late May-early June period, among them:  1) A consultation in Eastern Equatoria involving community leaders, church leaders, women, and youth aimed at easing conflict among the Toposa, Buya, and Didinga peoples; 2) A peace partner conference in Bor in Jonglei State to deal with Lou Nuer, Dinka Bor, and Murle violence; 3) a solidarity visit to Malakal in Upper Nile working with local church leaders, community leaders and elders, youth and women on revenge killings and hate speech.

In Sudan tensions have risen over security sector and economic reform. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemedti” said he would not merge his Rapid Support Forces (RSF) with regular forces into a single army, as provided by the October 2020 peace agreement.  Transitional Prime Minister Hamdok warned that failure to complete security sector reforms could lead to chaos and civil war.  Popular demonstrations against the IMF have taken place in Khartoum, where June 30 police dispersed more than 100, although the Fund had the previous day approved a debt relief package of $1.4 billion.  The IMF and World Bank announced at the same time that Khartoum was eligible for further debt relief, clearing the way for elimination 90% of Sudan’s $56 billion external debt within the next three years.  In another development betraying political tension, the Sudanese Government arrested at least 200 NCP members “preparing for acts of destruction,” according to Al Jazeera.

Executive Director

Focus Area: Theological Education

Bishop Gwynne College Reopens

Rev. Dr. Samuel Galuak Marial reports from Bishop Gwynne College (BGC), Juba-based flagship institution of the new Episcopal University of South Sudan, that Covid-19 affected the college to a limited extent.  A few students and staff were infected in January 2021, but each recovered.  The college, which had closed down in March 2020, reopened on May 14.  Most returning students had to fly from the countryside to Juba because of floods and insecurity by land.  The Most Rev. Samuel Peni, Archbishop of Western Equatoria, and Bishop Michael Deng Kutpiny, Bishop of Abyei, were particularly helpful in facilitating those flights.

Bishop Gwynne has a new chapel, dedicated to the memory of Archbishop Elenana Ngalamu, the first Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, in November 2021. The dedication came during the annual meeting of the House of Bishops and was attended by Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, and some 63 bishops.

Founded in 1945, BGC is celebrating 76 years of ministry. It is the oldest learning institution in South Sudan – the place where generations of ECSS ministers have been theologically formed and prepared for ordained and lay ministry.  It has had essential financial support from Good Book (UK), Anglican International Development (UK), Anglican Aid (Australia), Australian Oversea Counsel, and UK Anglican Canon Trevor and Tina Stubbs. Current challenges, for which BGC needs particular help, are the essential internet connection it cannot currently afford in Juba, plus additional classrooms.  Financial support can be provided through AFRECS (see below).

News and Notes

AFRECS transmits funds for Episcopal University scholarships
From Dane Smith, AFRECS Executive Director

AFRECS has transmitted to the Episcopal University of South Sudan $10,000 to fund scholarships for needy students.  The funding comes from an $8000 grant from the Gadsden Trust of Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, Virginia, and $2000 from AFRECS President Phil Darrow.

A letter from Hattie Williams forwarded by Bp John Gattek Wallam, Assistant Bishop of the Upper Nile Province and Bishop of Bentiu

Bishop Gattek included a request for prayers for the nation of South Sudan, its leaders and the church in his email.

Pope, Archbishop, and Moderator drop hints to South Sudan leadership
by Hattie Williams
12 July 2021

Personal sacrifice needed ‘to shape a nation that reflects God’s kingdom’

ALAMY

The President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, addresses the nation on the tenth anniversary of its independence, on Friday, at the State House in Juba.

POLITICIANS in South Sudan must be prepared to make personal sacrifices to reverse the fear and uncertainty that continues to grip the nation, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Francis, and Church of Scotland Moderator, Jim Wallace, have warned.

In a joint letter to political leaders in South Sudan on the tenth anniversary of its independence (Comment, 9 July), published on Friday, Archbishop Welby, Pope Francis, and Mr. Wallace write that “small progress” had been made in the country’s first decade. “Sadly, your people continue to live in fear and uncertainty, and lack confidence that their nation can indeed deliver the ‘justice, liberty and prosperity’ celebrated in your national anthem.

“Much more needs to be done in South Sudan to shape a nation that reflects God’s kingdom, in which the dignity of all is respected and all are reconciled (2 Corinthians 5). This may require personal sacrifice from you as leaders — Christ’s own example of leadership shows this powerfully — and today we wish you to know that we stand alongside you as you look to the future and seek to discern afresh how best to serve all the people of South Sudan.”

South Sudan celebrated its independence on 9 July 2011, after a 22-year civil war with the north (Sudan) in which more than two million people died (News, 15 July 2011). In 2013, a five-year civil war erupted after clashes between supporters of the President and his former deputy (News, 20 December 2013). Hundreds of thousands of people died, millions were displaced, and, while warring leaders held protracted peace talks, people died of hunger in what the UN described as a man-made famine.

Last week, bishops in South Sudan expressed their disappointment at the loss of direction in the country, and the “disillusionment, bitterness, and uncertainty” that had followed (News, 9 July).
In their letter, Archbishop Welby, Pope Francis, and Mr. Wallace recall the 2019 meeting of political and religious leaders from South Sudan at the Vatican (News, 12 April 2019), and pray “that those promises will shape your actions, so that it will become possible for us to visit and celebrate with you and your people in person, honoring your contributions to a nation that fulfils the hopes of 9 July 2011.

“In the meantime, we invoke upon you and all in South Sudan God’s blessings of fraternity and peace.”
{The three faith leaders also refer to their first letter, last Christmas, in which they prayed that South Sudan politicians might experience greater trust among them and be more generous to their people (News, 1 January)).

Text of the letter:  https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/news/news-and-statements/archbishop-pope-and-church-scotland-moderator-write-south-sudans-leaders?utm_source=Daily+media+digest&utm_campaign=78ba7e89cb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_11_27_02_01_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_296e14724b-78ba7e89cb-248610813&mc_cid=78ba7e89cb&mc_eid=b8f343923f

A message of hope from the South Sudan Council of Churches

Other News from Various Sources

This week’s news coverage largely focused on the 10^th Anniversary of South Sudan’s independence.  Below we offer links to a range of articles discussing this milestone in the nation’s history and some of the main players.

From Human Rights Watch
By Paul Aufiero and Nyagoah Tut Pur   07092021
South Sudan at a Crossroads: Challenges and Hopes 10 years after Independence
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/09/south-sudan-crossroads

On the current leaders from AFP   07092021

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir brandishes the country’s new constitution on July 9, 2011, Roberto SCHMIDT AFP

 Riek Machar has been a central figure in South Sudan’s history

Salva Kiir: The man who led South Sudan to independence then war
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210709-salva-kiir-the-man-who-led-south-sudan-to-independence-then-war

Riek Machar: Wily warlord with pivotal role in South Sudan’s bloody history
https://news.yahoo.com/riek-machar-wily-warlord-pivotal-035038944.html

From The Hill   07072021
By Amir Idris, opinion contributor
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

Is there hope for South Sudan after 10 years of failure?
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/561271-is-there-hope-for-south-sudan-after-10-years-of-failure

From The Daily Mail UK   07072021
From hope to despair: South Sudan marks 10 troubled years
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-9763681/From-hope-despair-South-Sudan-marks-10-troubled-years.html

From Foreign Policy   07072021
By Colum Lynch
Deep Dive: America’s greatest success story in Africa has degenerated into its biggest failure

Trainee soldiers for a new unified army carry wooden rifles while attending a reconciliation program run by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan at a makeshift barracks in Mapel on Jan. 31, 2020. TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images

We are deeply that grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact in this young and struggling nation.  You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.  We hope you will consider extending your generosity with a gift in this time of hope and possibilities. 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 and Executive Director Dane Smith.

AFRECS Editors encourage readers to submit their new for publication, the next deadline is July 20, 2021, please submit your news to Caroline Klam at klamcd21@gmail.com.

Update from Dane Smith 

I had a newsy message from newly consecrated Archbishop Joseph Garang Atem of Upper Nile.  He reports that for the time being he will remain resident in Renk, because Malakal, normally the capital of the Upper Nile Internal Province, is still greatly damaged by the civil war.  There is no place for him to stay, and security is not yet good enough.  He is eager to move to Malakal, when the situation permits, “to encourage people on peace building and trauma healing.”  Meanwhile, he says, the savings groups in Renk, where trauma healing instruction is carried on, are going well, and will hopefully become more numerous.

In his report to the Security Council June 22, UNMISS Chief Nicholas Haysom reported that there has been limited progress in implementing the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R/ARCSS) — appointment of 550 members of the reconstituted national legislature and the official launching of the process for creating a constitution.  However, no Speaker has been named for legislative assembly, and troops in cantonment and training sites have inadequate shelter, health care and food.  He added that bad leadership, non-functioning state governments and the absence of the rule of law is responsible for perpetrators of violence going free and for entrenched insecurity.  UNMISS reports that more than 400 people had been killed between February and the end of May this year, most of them civilians.

 

A new study by the African Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank associated with the US Department of Defense, blames much of the failure of statehood in South Sudan over the past decade on inability to contain the security sector: “The fragmentation of the armed forces, coupled with their loyalty to specific political leaders, a legacy of the independence struggle, allowed the new nation to be captured by a ‘gun class.’” (Luka Biong Deng Kuol, “Lessons from a Decade of South Sudanese Statehood”  https://africacenter.org/spotlight/lessons-decade-south-sudanese-statehood/)

There has been considerable international media coverage of Sudan in the past two weeks.  Following a visit to Khartoum by the outgoing Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the Cabinet pledged to hand over to the ICC Sudanese officials indicted for war crimes. Former President Bashir is included among that group, although his name was not mentioned in the pledge.

The New York Times reported last Sunday that family members of the more than 100 demonstrators killed in June 2019 by the security forces are increasingly unhappy that the bodies of the victims have not undergone autopsies and remain in a morgue outside Khartoum.  The delay reportedly reflects a split between Sudan Armed Forces Chief General Al-Burhan and General Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), Commander of the Rapid Support Forces, which were allegedly responsible for most of the killings.  Some protests occurred in June, and further demonstrations may take place on this issue.

Executive Director

Focus Area:  The Diaspora
Diaspora Celebrates its 2020 and 2021 Graduates
by Kwathi Akol Ajawin, Sudanese African Fellowship at Cornerstone Free Evangelical Church, Annandale, Virginia

On June 26, the South Sudanese community in the region of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia gathered online to celebrate the graduation of some thirty students, from kindergarten to post-graduates. The excellent commencement speaker was our friend, John Thon Majok, director of the Dinka Language Education Program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria and a member of the board of directors for the South Sudanese community in DMV.

The graduates included about seven high school graduates, nine college graduates, one Master’s graduate, and one recipient of a professional certificate.

It was a great occasion, and it was good to see South Sudan ‘s true diversity represented in these graduates. God is good! I presented an opening prayer and a short encouragement based on the farewell speech of Moses, “Today I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live”, from chapter 30 in the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy.
Speaking on behalf of the high school graduates, my daughter Gloria Akol said, “You are all capable of doing great things. I’m excited to see where your qualities and skills take you in life. I’d like to thank the team for granting me the opportunity to represent the decorated high school graduates within our community, and the community’s parents who encourage us to do our best.”

“This graduating class,” Gloria recalled, “faced the struggle of pushing through a pandemic and a summer full of social unrest, all while trying to maintain our academic performance and relationships with friends. But don’t forget – at just five years old, our young and easily distracted selves took on the challenge of being separated daily from our parents for the first time in our lives. We learned about math, science, the humanities, and the arts, all of which served as a catalyst in determining who we are as individuals and what motivates us to succeed. We also learned about friendship, and through trial and error learned the importance of maintaining relationships with people who are well-intentioned and act with our best interest in mind. For many, unfortunately, this was also when we learned about peer pressure and the other external factors that attempt to pull us off our track to success.”

News and Notes

Daughter of South Sudanese refugees wins place on U.S. Olympic track team
From the New York Times and The Trentonian    06/28/2021
Runner’s World

Athing Mu wins the 2021 800m Olympic Trial to qualify for Olympics
(From Runners World)

Athing Mu, the daughter born to South Sudanese refugee parents in Trenton, New Jersey, 19 years ago, came in first in her 800-meter Olympic trial race in Eugene, Oregon on June 27. Despite being clipped on the heel and falling early in the race, she took the lead and finished in 1:56.07 minutes, the second fastest time in U.S. track history. She will join the U.S. track team for the July Olympic games in Tokyo. Mu became a runner by following her brothers to the track. She’s one of seven children in a family who would often go running for fun together. After the Sunday night race, postponed because of extreme heat, she hugged some of them in the stands. According to The Oregonian, for as long as she can remember, Athing Mu always gave the same two answers when asked about what she wanted to be when she grew up: a professional athlete and an Olympian. Entering the trials, Mu was still holding onto her college eligibility, although she was considering going pro. Then, a couple of days before she competed, Mu announced that she had turned pro and signed a multiyear deal with Nike.

The Ma’di community in South Sudan mourns supreme leader
Eye Radio   06292021
Communication from Larry Duffee, AFRECS Board Member

The late Lopirigo Ambassador Angelo Voga has been described as an instrumental leader who played a key role in uniting his people/Courtesy photo.

The Ma’di community in South Sudan are mourning the death of their paramount chief locally known as the Lopirigo who passed on in a Kampala hospital at the age of 87. Local officials say Chief Angelo Voga Morgan succumbed to coronavirus on June 21.

The late Ma’di supreme leader had been living in Uganda after the 2016 conflict forced thousands of people, mostly from the Greater Equatoria region into refugee camps in Uganda.

He had served previously as Sudan’s ambassador to Zimbabwe.

“The late chief has been described by those who know him as an instrumental leader who played a key role in uniting his people. He was a respectful leader and when they elected him as the Lopirigo, a leader of the community, he was on the top of the issues of the community addressing their issues,” Emilio Igga, the former commissioner of Magwi County and defunct Pageri County, eulogized.

“It is really very sad that we lost him while still in refuge and this is peace time, we expected that he would come home to reconstruct the home together and now he is gone.” Mr. Igga says the late Amb. Voga “taught people how to live together.”

The Ma’di leaders say they are in discussion with the Ugandan government to allow them to return the body of their late leader for burial in his ancestral home.

A daughter of the late paramount chief, Suzan Kide Angelo Voga, lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia and is married to the treasurer of AFRECS, Lawrence R. Duffee.  Duffee said, “My wife’s father served for many years as the Paramount Chief. My father (I never thought of reducing that by adding “in-law”) was a wonderful, kind, and intelligent man, a real leader not only for the Ma’di but the nation. Our father was very involved in the Anaya-1 movement and was one of the last surviving signatories to the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement. He was also involved in the second war for independence.”

The AFRECS Board expresses its heartfelt condolences to the Duffees and the Voga family.

Observations on the 10th Anniversary of South Sudan’s Independence
by the Honorable Nicholas Coghlan, retired ambassador of Canada to South Sudan
This article first appeared in Open Canada; an online magazine published by the Canadian International Council (CIC)

July 1 is Canada Day, July 4 is U.S. Independence Day, and July 9 marks the birth of a sovereign South Sudan in 2011. A retired Canadian ambassador to Sudan and South Sudan reflects.

Independence Day celebrations will be muted this year, and they should be. South Sudan is by most criteria a failed state. In few constructive senses is the government present for its citizens.

Yet Canadians should care, because South Sudan, more than any country emerging on the world map since the decolonization wave of the 1950s and 1960s, is a western creation. The United States was the midwife, with Britain and Norway in close support. But Canada — our government, our church groups, our aid workers, Canadian pilots even — was never far behind. If South Sudan is a failure, it is one we partly own.

“The beginning – midwives to a new country”

The first time I saw what would become the new country — then a territory in revolt against the detested jihadists of Khartoum (Sudan), where I ran Canada’s tiny diplomatic office — was in 2000. I’d flown north from Nairobi to the United Nations’ logistics base at Lokichogio, just inside Kenya but on the edge of rebel territory in southern Sudan. This was the control center for Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), an innovative arrangement by which the UN negotiated with both Khartoum and the rebel factions for air access into opposition-held territory, while coordinating the aid activities of forty non-governmental organizations.

Planes and aid supplies on the ground at Lokichogio in Kenya at the edge of rebel territory in Sudan, control center for international aid operations before independence.

If you were an aid worker, Loki — as the cognoscenti called it — was the place to be in those years. At dawn, a flight of white C-130 Hercules would roar out for the first round of food drops over southern Sudan at locations painstakingly negotiated over months. In the interval before they returned for a second run, you’d hear smaller Twin Otters and Buffaloes buzzing in and out, the Dakota belonging to the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse, and Cessnas with the logos of Save The Children or Médecins Sans Frontières stenciled on their sides.

At the bars and canteens within the UN compound there was serious talk among the young expats of malnutrition rates, the latest famine predictions, the upcoming measles campaign — as well as the usual comparing of per diems. There were Canadians everywhere: glamorous bush pilot Heather Stewart — “All-Weather Heather” — was a legend in her own time.

There was no doubt who were the Good Guys and who were the Bad. I eavesdropped on a neighboring table at Murphy’s bar where a visiting American Congressman told of his hopes for his upcoming slave-redemption mission. He’d brought with him a million dollars in cash, raised by church groups in the southern U.S. and, in an encounter to be arranged and mediated by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), he would meet with Arab slave traders from the North to purchase the freedom of young boys and girls they had seized. At another table, pilots working for a Nordic relief agency were dropping the names of the rebel generals they’d just lifted from one front to another. UN staffers who tried to maintain a façade of neutrality were mocked. This was almost literally a crusade. If you were in any doubt, you might peruse the NGO noticeboards: one organization openly sought “evangelists.”

Aloft in a Hercules over a swamp-encircled village called Nhial, 1,000 km north of Lokichogio, my sense of slight unease was temporarily displaced by adrenaline. An airdrop (this one was Canadian funded) is an exhilarating experience. You strap in at the rear door.  You feel the hot wind, the ground rushes past 150 meters below, the aircraft screams into a climb, and twelve tons of food roll by you.

View from the cockpit of a C-130 Hercules after an airdrop; the white sacks of grain that have been dropped can be seen in the center.

What could be more inspiring? Food for the starving — you surely couldn’t spend dollars any better than this. But then I made my way back to the cockpit as we made a final pass to check for accuracy.  The pilot pointed down and off to one side.  The engines were too loud for speech. I could see men in rebel uniform barging their way in, pushing the civilians to one side.

“The problem — more easily visible in hindsight — was that we were effectively running the place.”

The diversion of international aid was deeply problematic in the 1983-2005 Sudanese civil war.  It allowed one side a distinct advantage and may well have contributed to its outcome. But blatant behavior of the kind I saw at Nhial was only part of the story.

Wherever I went on the ground in rebel-held territory, there were well-intentioned internationals delivering western-funded health, sanitation, and education projects. These programs were, I was happy to report to Ottawa, conscientiously administered and effective. The problem — more easily visible in hindsight — was that we were effectively running the place. The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army were freed up simply to fight. There was no need for them to provide any services for their people. The khawajas (white people) would do that; we’d been doing it since 1983.

What if we had called their bluff and said, “Look after your own people”? Wouldn’t that have shortened the war? Probably not. The rebels had little sense of responsibility; hundreds of thousands would have died, and within a few months CNN coverage of starving babies would have forced us back in.

 
Unloading relief supplies in Jonglei State

Peace finally came in 2005, thanks largely to a deeply committed U.S. administration, supported by allies. There was, however, a major flaw in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the fighting. The party to which power was handed on a plate — the SPLM — was dominated by the Dinka ethnic group and far from representative of the country-to-be. But the supposed pragmatists in Washington and other western capitals won out over carping academics and “experts.” A deal was signed, the fighting ceased, and independence was in due course euphorically celebrated.

For a (very) short time, all went well. The oil money — at US$100 a barrel — poured in. When I returned to South Sudan as a diplomat at our new office in Juba in 2012, it was painfully evident nobody in the new government had any significant experience of administration. The few from the diaspora who had returned to offer their services were brushed off with a scornful question: “Where were you when we were fighting?” All that money wasn’t going anywhere useful. “It’s our time to eat” was the cynical catchphrase, as funds disappeared in a morass of corruption and to maintain the rag-tag, bloated, and idle army. Donors still present in Juba were aghast when nothing constructive happened.

One day, I suggested to the minister of health that he should try to get more money from his treasury than the paltry 1.2 per cent allocated to his sector in the national budget. He shrugged as if in sympathy, then said: “But you see, Mr. Nicholas, when I go to the finance minister, he says ‘Don’t worry. The donors will pay. They always do.’” This was while the government was spending its own money buying helicopter gunships. We were being subjected to the same kind of blackmail as under Operation Lifeline Sudan, years before. As the president succinctly and without apparent irony put it to a top visiting U.S. diplomat, “Well of course you can suspend your assistance.  But, you see, that won’t make any difference to me.”

There was one promising development. Donor governments labored with the Juba administration to develop a Compact: a mutually agreed, prioritized set of objectives and benchmarks that would tie aid dollars to matching input from the Government of South Sudan. Following a countrywide consultation, the first draft of the Compact listed internal reconciliation as the top objective, with disarmament/demobilization of the armed forces in second place. Canada was among the very few to consider funding reconciliation projects — too “touchy-feely” for most. Nobody seemed prepared to contemplate disarmament.  The cost would run into the billions of dollars, and a large part of the program (the redevelopment of a small professional army) would in no way qualify as humanitarian aid — making funding it a tough sell for donor populations.

One more serious problem on Juba’s side: the government was unwilling to float the currency to allow donor dollars to attain real purchasing power. A well-connected few in cabinet were making a financial killing out of the artificial controls.

Soon all became moot. In December 2013 the massive, poorly integrated army split on largely ethnic lines, old rivalries were renewed, and civil war in South Sudan began. The international aid community briefly evacuated at the outbreak of conflict, then returned in greater force than ever. The Canadians came back, too, staffing NGOs and UN offices. Juba is now also home to Canada’s largest contingent anywhere of UN peacekeepers (a rather modest ten soldiers). In many ways we’re back to where we were when South Sudan first became a country, but with none of the optimism.

“Diplomats and aid workers are very bad at learning lessons.”

What’s to be done now? Diplomats and aid workers are very bad at learning lessons. We rotate in and out for laughably short periods. Two years after the 2013 civil war in South Sudan started, I was the only diplomat on the ground who had been there when it began. I spent a lot of time explaining things to new arrivals. So, the first, painfully obvious lesson: study the history, listen to the experts, don’t repeat the old and documented mistakes.

 
Ambassador Coghlan accompanying Lt Gen (r) Romeo Dallaire on a mission to expedite the release of child soldiers, Jonglei State, 2015

The second lesson is: as long as outside donors are pouring money into the country (Canada gave $98 million in 2019–2020), we have to hold the host government — which we are effectively propping up — to account.  We need to know where South Sudan’s significant oil revenue is being spent and why more is not going to services. This is not an intrusive demand. Such transparency is stipulated in the agreement between the government and rebel factions that finally ended the South Sudan civil war in 2018.

More delicate, but equally necessary, is a reckoning for the atrocities committed by all sides in nearly sixty years of war in this land. The government has committed to a hybrid (i.e., part South Sudanese) court but drags its feet. The pressure point here should be the African Union.

The international community procrastinated fatally in not pushing reconciliation and demobilization, which were priorities identified in the Compact by South Sudan’s people and government. A progressive and fair means of moving ahead now would be a revised Compact:  the Juba government matches our dollars, and we together implement programs we all agree are a priority, with verifiable benchmarks.

Ultimately there is only so much that we, as outsiders, can and should do here. If South Sudan is to succeed, it will not be as a neo-colonial project; it will depend above all on the South Sudanese demanding better things of their current feckless leadership. Today delivery of western aid needs to be not just for, but by, South Sudanese. As host to one of the larger South Sudanese diasporas, Canada perhaps holds a largely untapped reserve of expertise here.

Comments and questions in response to this article are welcome comment to my e-mail at bosun_bird@yahoo.ca.  Twitter handle @NicholasCoghlan

THANK YOU FOR LENDING A HELPING HAND!
We are deeply that 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 extending the hand of friendship with another gift — of whatever you can afford in this time of COVID and increasing disruption. 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 Caroline Klam and Richard Jones.

AFRECS Editors encourage readers to submit their news for publication. The next deadline is July 6, 2021, please submit your news to Caroline Klam at klamcd21@gmail.com.

Update from Dane Smith 

Mayhem Continues in South Sudan

On June 3, the Archbishop of Central Equatoria, Paul Benjamin Yugusuk, issued a statement denouncing the killing of the Rev. Cosmas Kwaje, Parish Priest of Gumbiri Parish, Diocese of Lainya, and three other church members, by South Sudan People’s Defense Forces after their arrest. He called on SSPDF Chief of Staff, Gen. Santino Deng Wol, to investigate and bring to justice the soldiers responsible. The SSPDF denied the killings.

The International Crisis Group reported at the end of May the death of more than 150 in South Sudan from inter-communal violence.  Actual numbers may have exceeded 200. The mayhem has continued in June with 13 killed near Rumbek in Lakes State in fighting between the Gony and the Theywieth (or Thuyci), ethnic groups not previously cited in the recounting of violence.  The attacks on humanitarian workers have also continued; two more were killed after delivering food near Rumbek June 8.

The new civilian head of UNMISS, Nicholas Haysom, has announced a different approach by the peacekeepers to the protection of civilians:  deploying troops to hotspots, setting up temporary bases, and intensifying patrols.  Haysom reported to Voice of America this week, however, that the GOSS has blocked UNMISS from patrolling in Western Equatoria and Western Bahr al-Ghazal states. Lakes State and Central Equatoria remain particularly dangerous areas.

Continued US Policy Review for South Sudan.  The Biden Administration continues a strategic review of policy for South Sudan in the recognition that existing policy has not worked very well to deal with dysfunctional government and continued violence.  This week the Administration has begun announcing ambassadorial nominations.  Hopefully, nominations of ambassadors for both Juba and Khartoum will materialize shortly.  One problem for US policy makers is the current paralysis of IGAD, the regional body for the Horn of Africa, now formally headed by Sudanese transitional Prime Minister Hamdok.  Ethiopia’s Abiy is preoccupied with his internal problems and the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, and Uganda’s Museveni is currently inactive.

Fruits of the Juba Agreement.  Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, the Darfuri former JEM rebel leader, became Sudanese Minister of Finance in early 2021 as a result of the Juba Agreement, which brought several rebel groups into the Government.  Ibrahim has been receiving positive attention from the media, particularly recent features in Bloomberg, for his success in obtaining assurances of debt cancellation, securing new loans from France, Germany, and Norway, and ending the longtime subsidy for gasoline and diesel prices.  One of the remaining non-signatories of the Juba document, Gen. Abdelaziz Al-Hilu, who controls the Nuba Mountains, just completed a week of talks with Khartoum to work out the details of the earlier declaration issued with the government on freedom of religion and a secular state.  Both sides report that more than three-quarters of the issues have been resolved, with further talks expected soon.

Political Violence in Sudan Largely Limited to Darfur.  In May, a protest to commemorate the 2019 demonstrations leading to the political transition in Sudan triggered the killing of two protesters by security forces.  To his credit, Prime Minister Hamdok condemned the killings, and seven perpetrators have been handed over to the Public Prosecutor for action.  However, little progress has been made in reducing violence in Darfur, particularly between the Masalit and Rizeigat Arabs, fearful of losing land which they seized during violence 15 years earlier.  The Government has spoken of deployment of a mixed force to include both Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (largely Darfuri Arabs) to calm the situation, but that has not yet occurred. The idea of such a mixed force generates much suspicion among non-Arab Darfuris.

Executive Director

Focus Area: South Sudan:  Educating War Orphans

Construction of New Classrooms: News from Bishop Gatteck with Pictures

We are grateful that St Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis has chosen to grant $12,500 to AFRECS to help expand the POC3 school for orphans and Unaccompanied Minors to 500 boys and girls. The school started with just 50 students less than five years ago.

Construction has started on the 8 new classrooms, store room and kitchen (for feeding the children their meal a day), and Bishop Gatteck and AFRECS are hopeful that much of the construction can be complete before the summer rainy season begins in earnest.

New teachers for the additional classes will be interviewed next week.

AFRECS continues as the primary financial sponsor of the school.

Bishop John asks for everyone’s prayers for the successful expansion of the school and that the school children may grow, learn and be fed in a safe, caring and educational environment, and that Bishop John’s own eyesight (he has lost much vision in his right eye) be restored in full so he can continue do God’s work with the children and others in the refugee camp.

Completed Classroom
Digging postholes	Setting support poles
Completing the support structure.	Bamboo walls and tin roof completed.

News and Notes

Trauma Healing News from Rev. Stephen M. Mou

Deadly local conflicts erupting over a territory as large as the entire southeastern United States cannot be addressed while sitting in an office in Juba. In May and June, accordingly, the Episcopal Church of South Sudan’s coordinator for Justice, Peace, and Reconciliation has been on the move. The Reverend Stephen M. Mou is based in Juba, but his mandate is to facilitate trauma  healing and conduct workshops on managing and resolving conflict – efforts all aiming towards reconciliation.

Invited by Joseph Garang Atem, Archbishop of Upper Nike Internal Province, Mou facilitated a workshop in Renk on May 8^th, attended by members of the churches at various levels. He noted the support for this work being given to the Diocese of Renk by the international charity Five Talents.

On May 25th to 27 he facilitated the same workshop in Bentiu, Upper Nile,
attended by 24 participants and funded by the office of the Primate of the Episcopal
Church of South Sudan. Between June 1^st and 3^rd, he conducted the same workshop with women from Greater Equatoria, Greater Bahr El Ghazal and Greater Upper Nile, this activity being funded by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Anglican Communion Fund.

Trauma Healing group meeting in South Sudan.

Before the end of June, Mou was scheduled to travel with the retired bishop of Torit and former Provincial Secretary, Enock Tombe, to Rumbek in Lakes State, to facilitate the same workshop with youth, women, priests, and traditional authorities. This activity is funded by the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan’s Primate office.

Mou’s motto is, “Go with the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love
them. Start with what they have. Build on what they know. But with the best leaders,
when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say, ‘We have
done this ourselves’.” (Lao-Tze)

Other News from Various Sources

COVID-19 News
From BBC News – 06142021

South Sudan vaccinates 16,000 against coronavirus

By Nichola Mandil

The health authorities in South Sudan have said that they have so far vaccinated more than 16,000 people against Covid-19. South Sudan has a population of 13 million. South Sudan has so far recorded 115 deaths from coronavirus.
https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c302m85q54lt/south-sudan

From the Associated Press – 06092021

‘This is Insane’: Africa desperately short of COVID vaccine
By Gerald Imray

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — In the global race to vaccinate people against COVID-19, Africa is tragically at the back of the pack. In fact, it has barely gotten out of the starting blocks.

The World Health Organization says the continent of 1.3 billion people is facing a severe shortage of vaccine at the same time a new wave of infections is rising across Africa. The shortfall is estimated at 700 million doses. And vaccine shipments to the continent have ground to a “near halt,” WHO said last week.

in an interview, Nkengasong called on the leaders of wealthy nations meeting this week at the Group of Seven summit to share spare vaccines — something the United States has already agreed to do — and avert a “moral catastrophe.”

“People are dying. Time is against us. This IS INSANE,” South African human rights lawyer Fatima Hasan, an activist for equal access to health care, wrote in a series of text messages.

https://apnews.com/article/uganda-south-africa-cape-town-africa-coronavirus-pandemic-c5d7c2b0f927c8bd4d8d91fbf2cda1ea

From BBC News – 06082021

South Sudan government threatens to close schools
By Nichola Mandil

South Sudan’s Education Minister Awut Deng Acuil has threatened to close schools that violate the Covid-19 public health protocols. The warning comes after some schools were inspected and found not to have hand washing facilities and learners were not wearing masks.

Ms. Acuil cited the rising coronavirus cases in neighboring countries as the reason why school administrators need to enforce all regulations. Ms. Acuil also appealed to parents to ensure the guidelines are being followed in schools.

https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c302m85q54lt/south-sudan

From Nyamilepedia – 06132021

Humanitarian partners seek $1.2 billion for South Sudanese refugees in regional countries

At least 93 humanitarian partners are seeking to raise $1.2 billion to improve the living conditions of over 2 million South Sudanese who have sought refuge and asylum in neighboring and regional countries.

According to the South Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRRP), a report compiled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spanning from January 2020 to December 2021, at least 66,000 of the 2.2 million refugees in regional and neighboring countries are children registered unaccompanied or separated from their parents and caregivers. In the document obtained by Nyamilepedia, Ms. Clementine Nkweta Salami, UNHCR Regional Director, Regional Bureau for East and Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes, says part of the much-needed funds would be channeled in rebuilding the livelihood of these children.

https://www.nyamile.com/news/humanitarian-partners-seek-1-2-billion-for-south-sudanese-refugees-in-regional-countries/

From Eye Radio – 06182021

World Bank allocates $116 million for poverty-reduction projects in South Sudan
By Jale Richard

The World Bank has allocated $116 million to address acute food insecurity and desert locust crisis in South Sudan. This is through two new projects that aim to strengthen the capacity of farmers, improve agricultural production, and restore livelihoods and food security.

South Sudan is facing increasing levels of food insecurity despite increased production, with exceptionally high food prices constraining access to food for large segments of population and desert locusts devouring crops. The UN and government projects that 7.2 million people will face acute food insecurity in the coming months, which is the highest number since independence.

In a press release yesterday, the World Bank says South Sudan Resilient Agricultural Livelihoods Project will provide a grant of $62.5 million that will support investments in training for farmers to help them efficiently manage their organizations, adopt new technology, and use climate-smart agriculture practices to boost their yields. It will also invest in tools, machinery, and seeds required to improve productivity.

While the Emergency Locust Response Project which consists of a grant for $53.7 million, will boost South Sudan’s response to desert locusts by restoring livelihoods for the poorest and strengthening the country’s preparedness systems.

https://eyeradio.org/world-bank-allocates-116-million-for-poverty-reduction-projects-in-s-sudan/

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 and Sudan.  We hope you will consider continuing your generosity with an additional gift of whatever you can afford, 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 AFRECS Board Member Caroline Klam.

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,

Focus Area: Trauma Healing

Some Background to AFRECS’ Work in Trauma Healing
By Dane Smith, Executive Director, AFRECS

Trauma Healing Groups under a tree in South Sudan. (Picture from Five Talents)

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

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

South Sudan’s traditional wrestler Alijok Nhial (L) from Yirol engages Majolot Mayom Macher from Terekeka as they compete

in a peace match during national championships in Juba, South Sudan February 1, 2020. REUTERS/Samir Bol

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.

Dr. Louis Edward Saleh Ufew murdered in Unity State, South Sudan,

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.

Burned out food assistance storage in Greater Pibor Administrative Area.

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/publications/atrocity-alert-no-254-myanmar-burma-ethiopia-and-south-sudan/
https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c302m85q54lt/south-sudan
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/05/23/South-Sudan-aid-doctor-killed-in-cold-blood-amid-rising-attacks
https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article69600
https://eyeradio.org/unicef-condemns-looting-of-humanitarian-supplies-in-pibor/
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/wfp-condemns-looting-of-food-assistance-in-greater-jonglei

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/news/article/torit-boarding-school-closes-due-to-insecurity-lack-of-food
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/kuajok-schoolgirls-lack-sanitary-pads-face-masks

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-urged-to-consider-growing-inter-communal-violence-a-national-crisis/

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/news/article/7-people-killed-2000-cows-raided-in-ayod-county

Jebel Barkal mountain in Nubia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (picture from Wikipedia)

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.

https://apnews.com/article/famine-sudan-africa-middle-east-south-sudan-9704f524380e58a623f76bc648d68bf7

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.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/03/south-sudan-un-human-rights-council-renews-mandate-of-commission-on-human-rights/

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

https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/president-kiir-approves-covid-19-vaccine-vaccinations-for-health-workers-start

https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/president-kiir-approves-covid-19-vaccine-vaccinations-for-health-workers-start

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