Update from Dane Smith 

POC Camps Become Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps

Protection of Civilian (POC) camps developed suddenly and spontaneously with the 2013 outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, when terrified populations rushed to the bases where UNMISS troops were stationed to seek protection. In the emergency the United Nations decided to open the gates of these bases so that thousands of people could receive temporary shelter.  Camps developed in places such as Bor, Bentiu, Malakal, and outside Juba. Temporary arrangements evolved into semi-permanence.  These settlements, within the periphery of UN bases, were different legally and structurally from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps like those set up in Darfur in western Sudan a decade earlier.  Neither the UN nor the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) was pleased with the arrangement.  For the UN, the necessity to protect populations within the static confines of the camp diverted UNMISS from its wider peacekeeping functions; for the GOSS UN control of these civilian locations derogated from its sovereignty.  

Last November both parties agreed to redesignate the POCs as IDP camps.  The GOSS took over the UNMISS administrator’s roles and responsibilities in implementing the protection mandate.  Dynamic (roving) patrol duties are now shared by South Sudan police services and UNPOL, the UN military police.  Civilian leaders in the newly designated IDP camps have expressed concern that their security could be endangered under the new arrangement, but it is too early to assess that danger.  In the former POC3 camp near Juba, which houses the Orphan School run by Episcopal Bishop John Gattek and financed largely by AFRECS, the security situation appears so far unchanged.

Some Positive News 

In January, the GOSS took two important steps toward implementation of the 2018 R/ARCSS peace agreement.  After a ten-month delay, the appointment of a governor and deputy governor for Upper Nile state finalized the slate of governors for South Sudan’s ten states.  Disagreement between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar over the candidate was finally overcome.  The appointment permits the executive arm of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity to deploy fully.  The second step was Cabinet approval of creation of the Hybrid Court.  Article 5 of the R/ARCSS stipulates that a Hybrid Court for South Sudan shall be established by the African Union “to investigate and where necessary prosecute” individuals responsible for violations of international and South Sudanese law, including crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of gender-based violence.  A hybrid court includes both national and international judges.  No details on the new South Sudanese institution have yet emerged. Key elements of the agreement remain unrealized, in particular, creation of the legislative assembly and – the most challenging – reform and reintegration of the security forces.

US Special Envoys Still at Work

As of press time Amb. Don Booth and Amb. Stuart Symington, Special US Envoys to Sudan and South Sudan respectively, were still hard at work, two weeks after the Biden Administration assumed office.  When I spoke to Symington at the end of January, he was in Nairobi for meetings with Kenyan leaders and was heading for Rome for additional sessions between the Sant’ Egidio peacebuilding organization and the non-signatories of the R/ARCSS, Gen. Thomas Cirillo and Shilluk leader Pagan Amum.  Don Booth was then in Khartoum.  The two professional diplomats remain in place, pending the naming of a new Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.  Amb. Tibor Nagy, the previous Assistant Secretary, who met with South Sudan Episcopal Primate (Archbishop) Justin Badi Arama in 2019, stepped down the day of the transition.


Executive Director

World Mission Sunday – February 14 – Video Available: Savings Circles, Literacy, and Peacemaking in Renk

AFRECS supports the microfinance and peacemaking training provided by Five Talents at the invitation of Joseph Garang Atem, Bishop of the Diocese of Renk in Upper Nile. A new video offers glimpses of the women’s circles under a tree for prayer, savings, and small-business ventures, plus military and civilian personnel attending an indoor class on peacemaking.  Prepared by David Chaves, communications manager for Five Talents in Vienna, Virginia, this two-minute film concludes with a message from Bishop Garang: “God is still working, and the Church is still working.” The video is recommended for use in congregations on Mission Sunday, February 14:  https://vimeo.com/507607703 For details: davidchaves@fivetalents.org  tel. 703-242-6016. 

Other News from Various Sources

From The New Humanitarian 01/21/2021
Old grudges and empty coffers: South Sudan’s precarious peace process
Abstract from an article by Sam Mednick

On the streets of South Sudan’s capital city, billboards honor the country’s politicians for ending five years of conflict that cost almost 400,000 lives and displaced millions. But nearly a year after President Salva Kiir formed a unity government with opposition leader Riek Machar – now the vice-president – key parts of the agreement have not been implemented amid entrenched distrust between the two men, funding shortages, and renewed fighting that cost thousands of lives in 2020.

Many South Sudanese who spoke to TNH on a visit to the country in December questioned the political will for peace, while analysts fear disenchantment within Machar’s camp over the slow progress could soon fuel new outbreaks of violence.

Insufficient funding for the agreement is further complicating efforts. Dozens of mostly opposition troops have starved to death in cantonment and training sites as they wait to join a new national army, while peace deal officials in Juba have been chased from hotels because the government isn’t paying their bills – $10 million is owed to nine hotels.

As the agreement stagnates, a humanitarian crisis is worsening. Deadly violence, torrential rains, and a contracting economy have left more than 100,000 people facing “phase five” catastrophic levels of hunger, and tens of thousands experiencing likely famine conditions, according to a November report published by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Machar and Kiir shook hands and hugged last year when they agreed to work together. But trust runs thin between the old foes who have been squabbling over appointments for political positions – leaving most state and county posts unfilled and a new parliament yet to be established.

Many South Sudanese blame both men for the enduring crisis. A recently published report from the country’s National Dialogue Steering Committee, an initiative that gathered the views of tens of thousands of ordinary people, called for the two politicians to resign ahead of elections scheduled for 2023.

“They have… created an unbreakable political deadlock in the country, and they no longer have the political will or moral leadership capacity to move beyond personal grudges and egos,” the report stated.

Speaking to TNH via WhatsApp, Stephen Par Kuol, secretary general for the National Transition Committee, the government body in charge of implementing the peace deal, blamed financial problems for the implementation challenges.  Falling oil prices – South Sudan’s main revenue source – and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic have left the government with “no funds as things stand now”, Kuol said.

Little has been done, meanwhile, to unify soldiers who fought each other for years. In Pibor, government army commander Korok Nyal said 150 soldiers from the ethnic Murle group left a training site in nearby Bor town out of concern they would be targeted by troops from other ethnic groups. In the southern state of Central Equatoria, another commander told TNH his men have no contact at all with opposition soldiers.

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2021/01/21/south-sudan-peace-deal-violence-famine



The Voice of America 01/25/2021
South Sudanese Still Face Threat from Unexploded Mines, Munitions
by Waakhe Simon Wudu

Many South Sudanese have been returning home to farm the land and live their lives after United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) workers spent years clearing huge portions of the country that were littered with unexploded ordnance.  Still, officials warn the work is far from over.

In December, U.N. mine-clearing workers detonated unexploded ordnance in Amee, a village located 135 kilometers southeast of Juba, but civilians still come across unexploded devices.

Okolo Joseph, a resident of Lokiliri Payam in Central Equatorial state, said his son, James Wani, 6, was maimed by a landmine last April while playing with other children, who found an unidentified object on the ground.  He tried to throw the object away and it exploded.

Among the unexploded ordnance U.N. landmine workers have discovered, removed, and detonated are Russian-made cluster munitions.  The were dropped by the thousands across parts of South Sudan during the 21-year civil war between the Khartoum government and Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Charles Tombe, 35, who fled Amee village during the SPLA-Khartoum conflict, returned home in 2011, has been farming ever since. Tombe said, “The places they have cleared help us.  They give us freedom whether working or walking.  It helps us a lot.  And places they have marked as dangerous help and prevent us from encroaching them, because we already know they are dangerous.”

Since 2001, 1,404 people across South Sudan have been killed by unexploded ammunitions; more than 3,700 others were injured by the devices, according to UNMAS.

https://www.voanews.com/episode/south-sudan-focus-4555976

Radio Tamazuj 01/22/2021
Returning refugee numbers dwindle as they decry mistreatment at borders

More than 4,000 refugee returnees have returned to South Sudan between December and now from neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and South Sudan’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC). 

The UN Refugee Agency, in a statement yesterday said, 4,036 South Sudanese refugee returnees were verified to have entered South Sudan in December and early this year, a marked reduction of spontaneous or voluntary returnees from 7,981 reported in November 2020. 

 

 

Returning refugees, according to UNHCR and RRC, reported cases of extortion, arrest, and harassment by authorities at Nadapal and Nimule, border points with Kenya and Uganda.

“Fighting between SPLA-IO and SPLA-IG in Kajo Keji is leading to the interruption of spontaneous refugee returns. Lack of shelter in host communities as they await the dry season to construct their shelter and limited capacity by authorities to respond to COVID-19 positive cases among whom are spontaneous refugees at Nimule border point are influencing movement,” the refugee agency added. 

https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/returning-refugee-numbers-dwindle-as-they-decry-mistreatment-at-borders

 

Sudans Post  02/05/2021
South Sudan is now the most corrupt country on earth – Transparency International

An annual report by the German-based non-profit organization, Transparency International, has ranked South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, as the most corrupt country in the world bypassing Somalia, Syria, and Yemen which were the most corrupt countries in 2019.

 

https://www.sudanspost.com/south-sudan-is-now-the-most-corrupt-country-on-earth-transparency-international/


UN News – 02/02/2021; The East African – 02/01/2021
Next Steps Towards Hybrid African Union-South Sudan Court

The Cabinet of the President of South Sudan on February 1 took one more cautious step towards honoring human rights while preserving national sovereignty, as required by the 2018 peace agreement between two dominant factions in their seven-year struggle.  “Now,” said Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the Commission on Human Rights in Sudan, “the government must reconstitute the Transitional National Legislative Assembly to legislate for the three agreed mechanisms: “the Hybrid Court to prosecute human rights violations; the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing; and the Compensation and Reparation Authority to administer a fund for victims.”

“The Government should now take immediate steps to sign the agreement with the African Union and adopt the draft Statute creating the Hybrid Court”, said Commissioner Barney Afako.  The absence of accountability and reparation, including sexual violence, according to Commissioner Andrew Clapham, “undermines the fabric of society and breeds resentment.”

The Commission on Human Rights was established by the United Nations Council on Human Rights in March 2016, but its members are not UN staff nor paid by the UN.

Peace monitors from the African Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, for their part, pointed on January 29 to the failure of the Presidency and commanders to implement Chapter II of the peace agreement, which requires 83,000 troops to be integrated into one professional army. The training that started in 2020 has been adjourned several times. Some soldiers have abandoned the training centers for lack of food, shelter, and separate facilities for women.  The monitors urge the Presidency to “provide adequate food, accelerate graduation of the unified national force, and publish their redeployment plan.”

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1083492

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/unification-of-forces-in-south-sudan-3276048


Remember your favorite Valentine with a gift of love and life to our friends in the Sudans

We are grateful that you our supporters have continued to propel AFRECS in expanding our impact on the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.  We hope you will consider continuing your generosity with a gift in honor of a friend or loved one on Valentine’s Day. Your contribution makes a difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Sudan.  You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.

This issue of the AFRECS E-Blast was compiled by Board members Caroline Klam and Richard Jones.

Update from Dane Smith 

Lawlessness in South Sudan: An Archbishop Speaks Out

A senior South Sudanese official announced January 5 that the President has directed the security forces to put an end to “road ambushes, cattle raids and intercommunal clashes” in the country.  The announcement came at the end of a meeting of the National Security Committee.

It followed by a few days accusations by Dr. Paul Benjamin Yugusuk, Archbishop of Central Equatoria, that elements of the South Sudan Peoples’ Defence Forces (formerly the SPLA) were robbing Christians in Lainya County. He cited an incident in which soldiers forced a group of Christians to drink alcohol and then set fire to the hut they were in.  He added that such problems were happening all over South Sudan because soldiers are not being trained or paid.  He said there were some soldiers living in harmony with civilians but others guilty of atrocities. (Radio Tamazuj)

US Diplomacy with Khartoum as Trump Administration Winds Down

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin visited Khartoum January 6, when Sudan signed the “Abraham Accords” with the US promising to normalize relations with Israel.  Perhaps more important to Khartoum was the signature as well of a Memorandum of Understanding making available a bridge loan of $1 billion to clear Sudanese debt with the World Bank and enabling Sudan to access perhaps $1. billion in Bank assistance.  Mnuchin met with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Sovereignty Council President Abdel Fatteh al-Burhan before jetting off to Israel.

Agenda for the Episcopal Church of Sudan

Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo, Primate of the Episcopal Province of Sudan, has shared with me the results of the December meeting of Bishops I mentioned in our last issue.  The bishops rejoiced in the change of regime in Khartoum, the lifting of sanctions against Sudan, the removal of Sudan from the US terrorist list, the agreement reached with rebel groups, and the possibility of normalized relations with Israel.  The Episcopal church has been distributing food in Kassala, Wad Medani and Khartoum.  The Province will focus on training pastors and the Mothers’ Union, while suspending for the present the ordination of new pastors.  It will develop a modernized Arabic version of the Book of Common Prayer.  It will do a census of Episcopalians and church properties.

Executive Director

Sudan in talks with Egypt & Ethiopia on Renaissance dam

Representatives of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met virtually January 3 under the chairmanship of South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor to discuss the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River.  Little progress was achieved, but further meetings are scheduled this month.  The Egyptian Government is pressing for agreement before Ethiopia begins the second phase of filling the dam reservoir. The basic conflict is between Ethiopia and Egypt, but the Sudanese Government wants to be sure its interests are covered in this difficult dispute.

Message to AFRECS from John C. Danforth, Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

AFRECS recently received a note of support from John C. Danforth, retired Senator from Missouri, Ambassador to the United Nations, and former Special Envoy for Peace in Sudan.

“We Christians have been commissioned to a ministry of reconciliation. In no place is our ministry more important today than in the Sudans. The Episcopal Church has a responsibility to hold together all the people of God.”
-John C. Danforth, Special Envoy for Peace to Sudan, 2001-2005

We are grateful for Senator Danforth’s past diplomatic labor and his ongoing commitment to the peacemaking work of the church in the Sudans.

10^th Anniversary of S. Sudan’s Independence Referendum
by Lawrence R. Duffee, AFRECS Board Member

No one knew how the Referendum would go when voting began on January 9, 2011, leading to independence for South Sudan on July 9 of that year.

Would the vote happen at all? Incidents of insecurity might be all the excuse dictator Omar al-Bashir needed to postpone the vote. Or logistical challenges of distributing millions of ballots in a country without roads or verifying voting eligibility for people without birth certificates and IDs. The Sudanese had seen terrible violence in Kenya following an election there in 2007, and after voting in Sudan in April 2010 some small violence occurred.  I was serving with the Episcopal Church of Sudan (pre-ECSS!) at the Provincial office in Juba. So many unknowns, and yet Referendum Day arrived – a Sunday.

Citizens waiting in line to vote in the Referendum.

At All Saints Cathedral prayers were offered for peaceful voting and for an outcome, regardless of what it was, accepted by all. In the afternoon we visited an elementary school in downtown Juba to observe His Grace, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, vote. Joining him would be Archbishop Paulino, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Sudan. Having both Archbishops vote together was thought an important symbol for all to feel safe in voting.

Long queues of men and women – the sexes voted separately – waited patiently. From the length of the lines it was clear some people had waited hours to vote. The Archbishops were whisked directly inside, and once their IDs had been checked each was allowed to vote. Voting was accomplished by using an ink-stained finger to choose the box showing two hands clasped (remain united) or one hand waving (separation.)

After the vote both Archbishops visited outside with other religious leaders. Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Roslyn visited the school as part of the Carter Center’s efforts to monitor the vote. I was privileged to shake Mr. Carter’s hand, a thrill I will always remember.

Juba was flooded with international journalists. My sense was that many wanted to document the carnage they expected to happen. But the voting continued with hardly a hitch for nearly a week, enough time for everyone to reach the polling places. By mid-week most of the journalists were gone, having missed the greatest story of all — a wide-spread, peaceful vote in one of the least developed places on earth.

A week later, with Rev. Canon Ian Woodward of Salisbury who was visiting Juba, I watched some of the votes being counted. In the end some 99 percent of those eligible had voted, and 98 percent of these voted for separation. The Referendum was a victory for the diplomacy that allowed the vote to happen, and a display of confidence and determination by the people of the South to chart their own way.

Additional memories: Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY9YzW-uhfY for a 1-hour video by the Rev. Robin Denney, provincial agricultural advisor in the ECS and now rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Napa, California.

Report from the Episcopal University of South Sudan

The rollout of the new Rokon campus has been slowed by the illness of University developer Dr. Joseph Zebedayo Bilal, reports Dr. Eeva John of Sudan University Partners.  Joseph has been flown to the UK for treatment of serious malaria and complications. He is recovering well and expects to return to Juba in March or earlier. Supporters in the UK are organizing for Joseph a supply of anti-malarial drugs, which are exorbitantly expensive in Juba. High on his agenda on his return will be to arrange a site visit for EMI, the Uganda-based Christian engineering organization that is planning the new campus.

Future site of the new campus in Rokon of the Episcopal University of South Sudan
(Facebook bit.ly/2shwHkI)

Government licensing of the new university is proving to be a slow process. The GOSS is now requiring that faculty credentials be certified by the government concerned. Thus Dr. Bilal, whose degree is from Britain, is seeking a certificate of authentication from the UK government. Eeva John and her daughter are also seeking authentication in order to be part-time faculty at EUSS.

“Please pray for Joseph’s continued recovery and for all obstacles to be removed so that the University and its new campus may have a glorious beginning,” said the Rev. Rick Houghton, AFRECS Board member.

ECSS and ECS have Good Friends in the United Kingdom
by Richard Jones, AFRECS Board Member

Church Association for Sudan and South Sudan (CASS) is the new name for what was formerly the Sudan Church Association, with the Archbishop of Sudan as patron, three Church of England bishops (including Salisbury and Bradford) as Vice-Presidents, the Venerable Michael Paget-Wilkes as longtime chairman and Canon Ian Woodward as a committee member.

Current Co-Chairs are the Revd Ian Wallace of Bristol UK and the Revd Pauline Walker. Their new website is http://www.cass.org.uk. CASS continues to publish twice year a handsome magazine with the long-familiar title SUDAN CHURCH REVIEW. The autumn 2020 issue has a number of informative articles, including one on the Episcopal University of South Sudan’s new location at Rokon.

To become a member of CASS and receive publications or e-mail, contact the membership secretary andrew.m.persson@gmail.com mailto:andrew.m.persson@gmail.com . A minimum donation of 20 British pounds per year is required.

Other News from Various Sources

Voice of America, January 7, 2021
Signature of the Abrahamic Accords Enables Sudan to Clear World Bank Arrears

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was in Khartoum Wednesday, Jan 6, where he and Sudanese Justice Minister Nasereldin Abdulbari signed the Abrahamic Accords to normalize relations with Israel and a Memorandum of Understanding under which the US will provide a $1 billion bridge loan to clear Sudanese debt to the World Bank and enable Bank lending of $1.6 bill.

The VOA reported the event as follows January 7:
KHARTOUM – Sudan has officially signed the Abraham Accords, agreeing to normalize relations with Israel.  The deal paves the way for Sudan to relieve its massive debt to the World Bank.

The historic signing took place at the U.S embassy in Khartoum Wednesday. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin signed on behalf of Washington, while Sudanese Minister of Justice Nasereldin Abdelbari signed on behalf of Khartoum.

Speaking to reporters after the signing, Abdelbari said Khartoum welcomes the rapprochement and the diplomatic ties between Sudan and Israel that Sudan will boost for its own benefit and for other countries in the region. He said Khartoum appreciates Mnuchin’s historical visit and hopes to strengthen ties between Sudan and the U.S.

In his brief statement, Mnuchin said it was “a great honor to be here with you today, and I think this will have a tremendous impact on the people of Israel and the people of Sudan as they continue to work together on cultural and economic opportunities.”

The Abraham Accords are a series of U.S.-brokered agreements calling for the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and now, Sudan, to normalize relations with Israel after decades of broken ties.

Sudan agreed to sign the accords in part so the United States would remove the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that has blocked Sudan’s access to international loans.  In late December, the U.S. removed Sudan from the list.

https://www.voanews.com/episode/south-sudan-focus-4541156

Associated Press, January 2021
Rare conviction of South Sudan soldiers for rape raises hope
By Sam Mednick

First, the soldiers stole their belongings. Then they took their food. On their third and final visit, the woman said, the soldiers raped her and her daughter-in-law until they were unable to walk.

What sets these assaults in South Sudan apart from many other rapes by soldiers is this: The women brought the men to court and won. The 48-year-old mother of four reported the rape in May to South Sudan’s army chief when he visited her village of Adio .A new army chief of staff, responding to growing frustration with such crimes, sent military judges from Juba to oversee the case and those of 10 other women and girls who also came forward. In the end, 26 soldiers were convicted, some for rape but others for offenses including looting. It was the first time soldiers had been convicted of rape since the 2016 rampage at the Terrain Hotel, where five international aid workers were gang-raped and a local journalist was killed.

The September conviction has raised hopes that such crimes will increasingly be prosecuted.

https://apnews.com/article/africa-south-sudan-crime-d1349141044a4fae7257588cb8ad4d05

From Anadolu Agency, January 14, 2021
by Benjamin Takpiny

South Sudan’s flood victims hit by food, water shortage
Juba, South Sudan

People who fled devastating floods in South Sudan’s Jonglei state to Mangalla in Central Equatoria state said they are now facing a new challenge — a severe lack of food and water. Waterborne diseases are also creating a nightmare among the group of about 96,000 people, Atem Akuoch, one of its leaders, told Anadolu Agency.

While some of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are forced to trek long distances in search of clean water, others have resorted to drinking contaminated water from the River Nile, leading to disease outbreaks among them, he said.

The IDPs, mostly from Jonglei, fled floods in their area last year. Countrywide, the floods have affected over one million people. Most homes from the town of Bor to Twic East have been submerged in a devastating flood, displacing 200,000 people. The water level in Jonglei state has risen 1.5 meters (4.9 feet). Aid agencies believe the floods will aggravate food crises in the region.

“Their being in Mangalla is not their fault,” said David Garang Goch, chairperson of the Jonglei Civil Society. “They have been displaced by floods which are a national natural disaster. Let the government of South Sudan and humanitarian agencies come in and ensure access to food, drinking water, and medical services. They are really suffering.”

Goch said access to health facilities is also a problem for the group. “It’s a terrible situation without food, water and medical services. Those people are in dire need of humanitarian services,” he said.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/south-sudans-flood-victims-hit-by-food-water-shortage/2109460

Cattle herder in South Sudan

Voice of America, January 6, 2021
South Sudan Religious Leaders Hold Talks Aimed at Ending Intercommunal Fighting
by Daniel F. Martin

With an eye toward ending intercommunal violence that killed dozens of people last month in Central Equatoria state, South Sudanese religious leaders and civil society activists have organized direct peace and reconciliation talks between various communities.

Some meetings already have taken place in rural villages of Terekeka County and included chiefs, women, youth, farmers, and cattle camp leaders. Cattle raids are a chronic problem in parts of South Sudan, separate from the civil war that killed tens of thousands between 2013 and 2017.

Paul Yugugusuk, archbishop of the Central Equatoria province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, blames the increased violence in certain areas, particularly in Terekeka and Lainya counties, on a lack of clear laws on the movement of cattle and justice for victims of cattle raids

“We cannot do our work when people are fighting” he said.  “Now that there is an ongoing peace dialogue in Rome, although it’s going slowly, we call on the conflicting communities, armed and non-armed actors, the opposition and the government, to join hands for the revitalized peace agreement so that the implementation becomes easy.”

https://www.voanews.com/africa/south-sudan-focus/south-sudan-religious-leaders-hold-talks-aimed-ending-intercommunal

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

We continue to be grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact.  You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.  We hope you will consider another generous gift — or whatever you can afford in this time of COVID  — as we begin our new program year  You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302
Please Note: AFRECS’ former address c/o Virginia Theological Seminary is no longer valid.

This issue of the AFRECS E-Blast was compiled by Board members Frederick L. Houghton and Caroline Klam.

Update from Dane Smith 

Lawlessness in South Sudan: An Archbishop Speaks Out

A senior South Sudanese official announced January 5 that the President has directed the security forces to put an end to “road ambushes, cattle raids and intercommunal clashes” in the country.  The announcement came at the end of a meeting of the National Security Committee.

It followed by a few days accusations by Dr. Paul Benjamin Yugusuk, Archbishop of Central Equatoria, that elements of the South Sudan Peoples’ Defence Forces (formerly the SPLA) were robbing Christians in Lainya County. He cited an incident in which soldiers forced a group of Christians to drink alcohol and then set fire to the hut they were in.  He added that such problems were happening all over South Sudan because soldiers are not being trained or paid.  He said there were some soldiers living in harmony with civilians but others guilty of atrocities. (Radio Tamazuj)

US Diplomacy with Khartoum as Trump Administration Winds Down

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin visited Khartoum January 6, when Sudan signed the “Abraham Accords” with the US promising to normalize relations with Israel.  Perhaps more important to Khartoum was the signature as well of a Memorandum of Understanding making available a bridge loan of $1 billion to clear Sudanese debt with the World Bank and enabling Sudan to access perhaps $1. billion in Bank assistance.  Mnuchin met with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Sovereignty Council President Abdel Fatteh al-Burhan before jetting off to Israel.

Agenda for the Episcopal Church of Sudan

Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo, Primate of the Episcopal Province of Sudan, has shared with me the results of the December meeting of Bishops I mentioned in our last issue.  The bishops rejoiced in the change of regime in Khartoum, the lifting of sanctions against Sudan, the removal of Sudan from the US terrorist list, the agreement reached with rebel groups, and the possibility of normalized relations with Israel.  The Episcopal church has been distributing food in Kassala, Wad Medani and Khartoum.  The Province will focus on training pastors and the Mothers’ Union, while suspending for the present the ordination of new pastors.  It will develop a modernized Arabic version of the Book of Common Prayer.  It will do a census of Episcopalians and church properties.

Executive Director

News from the Diaspora

AFRECS Board member Anita Sanborn recently traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, to spend time with her longtime friend and colleague, Helen Achol Abyei. They first met in 2004 in Denver, Colorado, where Helen had relocated with three of her daughters upon arriving in the United States as a refugee.  Mama Helen has been active in the Diaspora community in North America, including with the South Sudanese Diaspora Network for Reconciliation and Peace (SSDNRP). A highlight of the 2019 AFRECS conference in Lexington, Virginia, was a reading of her play Tribalism No More. Helen has shared her poetry and plays, including her recent Cultural Clashes, with organizations supporting refugees in the US as well as those in South Sudan.  Helen became a US citizen and earned a Bachelor’s degree from Metro State University in Denver. She is the mother of 6 highly accomplished children and the grandmother of 12. 

Anita:  Dear Sister, you and I have been through a lot together.  We have traveled together and worked side by side–especially on projects. to improve the lives of children here in the Diaspora and back home in South Sudan.  Our families have shared many life events, including the passing of those dear to us. We have been engaged with AFRECS for many years.  Tell me what is going on in the Diaspora.

Helen:  Since I came into the U.S.in November 2002, the Diaspora has changed a lot.  In the beginning, we were all together, even those who came from the North.  In Denver, we gathered at St. John’s Cathedral. We felt welcomed and secure.  As time went on, we suffered losses such as the death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior. In 2013 we celebrated independence for South Sudan.  Those big events brought us together, as did the births and deaths of those in the Diaspora community. 

Over the past 18 years, as people have matured in this culture, some have thrived through their hard work. Others have been overwhelmed because they could not adapt or did not have the skills or ability to get an education. A lot of young Sudanese have chosen the wrong path.    Culture here is so different.  Discipline is different.   If you do not change in this country, it will be difficult to keep up with your children.  It takes resilience to work several jobs, help your children with their schoolwork, and stay healthy.  So many of us have deep scars due to what we have been through. 

Some block themselves off from encouragement and advice — due to pride, or because they did not think they needed it.  Human nature makes people sensitive. Our people brought with them tribal identities.  In some communities we were able to overcome this for a time.  But it takes constant attention.  We used to come together in the church, but then some groups broke off and started worshipping with their own tribal group.  Also, the effects of trauma cannot be discounted.  We must acknowledge the role of trauma, war, dislocation, malnutrition, and fear on all of us.

I want to write about all this. Through my plays I have tried to share different perspectives so that we can all see ourselves better.

Anita:  The situation in the Sudans has been so difficult, especially in the past five years.  How do you see the impact of this?

Helen:  There has been so much suffering due to food insecurity, militia activity, the loss of key leaders through imprisonment, assassination, or those forced into exile. Now we even have to say that climate change is bringing floods and altering the growing seasons back home.  Survival is all most people can focus on.

Those in the Diaspora are trying to send more financial help This makes it harder for them as they, too, have suffered economic hardships in the US economy. And now COVID-19.  The stress has made it hard for people to come together as we would like to do. I believe people are doing what they can.  Some are still coming together to worship and pray, but COVID-19 has changed that too.

My friend Busaina in Portland, Oregon is reaching out to her relatives in Sudan to help them buy books and then having discussions by internet, to give the love of reading and help keep education alive.  I started doing the same with my cousins.

Anita:  I hear you saying this is a time of stress — people need to be comforted. 

Helen:  Myself, I believe in prayer. Even though we cannot be together now, the day will come.  The church is our home, and we will return. 

Anita: You have given me a framed verse from Psalm 100: “For the Lord is good and His love endures forever.” It is evident that you remain committed to improving the lives of your fellow countrymen and women — especially the women and children. Your faith is the wellspring of your life.  You share your sense of humor and joy with me, and with all. 

While my husband was in healthcare facilities in Denver with COVID-19 from August through October, I realized how many refugees work in frontline positions.  I was reunited with many in the South Sudanese community working as housekeepers, janitors, CNAs, and RNs. I had not seen them in years. Suddenly we met again in elevators and hallways. We recognized each other, despite our masks.  They were compassionate and encouraged me.   I look around and see the newest immigrants and refugees are serving in healthcare during this time of great need. 

Trinity Cush, Diocese of Iowa 

Growing in numbers through immigration, marriage, and births, Trinity Cush, the newest Episcopal congregation in Des Moines, Iowa, has outgrown the small chapel at St. Andrew’s on Urbandale Avenue. According to Eve Mahr and their Postulant for Holy Orders, Jacob Deng Aleer,” We now make a sound that echoes throughout St. Andrew’s building, supported by drums plus prayerbooks and hymnals in Dinka.” Worship in Dinka is now scheduled at 11:30 a.m. Sundays in the same space where the English-speaking congregation prays at 10 a.m., except during the pandemic as both congregations are worshiping online.
Bishop Scarfe’s Visitation to Trinity Cush in Des Moines, Iowa.

This Dinka congregation first met at Cottage Grove Presbyterian Church in 2001. Under the guidance of the Rev. Peggy Harris, they accepted an invitation in 2003 to worship in the chapel of St. Andrew’s, where the rector is Steven Godfrey. (Scottish Episcopal missionaries, such as Dr. Kenneth Fraser and his wife Eileen, are remembered for their medical and educational work in Moruland, centered on Lui, in the 1920s and 30’s.) The name “Cush” evokes the biblical grandson of Noah, thought of as the father of the African continent, as well as the Cushite wife of Moses, and the ancient kingdom of Cush on the Nile.

Looking to the future, Jacob Aleer says, “We plan to pray two times a day, so that people working mornings will attend evening prayer, and people working in the evening will attend the morning prayer. We want to spread the Word of God to the communities in Iowa and outside of Iowa.” Trinity Cush was accepted in October 2020 as a congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa.

Adapted from the Diocese of Iowa newspaper.  https://www.iowaepiscopal.org/iowa-connections
Fall 2020 Edition, Additional information: John Kelei, (515) 441-5541.

COVID-19

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies reported December 20 that Sudan has registered 9,676 cases of COVID-19 since October 1, a 41% increase since the beginning of the year, with total cases reaching 23,316.  South Sudan has registered 836 in the same period an increase of only 24% for total cases of 3,540.  Given the lack of testing capacity and action in South Sudan, those numbers are particularly suspect.  The report did not list numbers of deaths in either country.  However, the New York Times on January 3 stated that researchers had turned up deaths in Khartoum alone of more than 16,400 by mid-November.

SOUTH SUDAN

The South Sudan Government announced January 5 that the parties to the R/ARCSS have agreed that the transitional period for the agreement should be extended to 2023 “to allow full implementation of critical tasks.” This is the third extension of the transition.  Key unfinished tasks include designation of the 10^th governor and security sector reforms, to say nothing of preparations of elections at the end of 2022.  Critics will argue that the decision simply cements in place the benefits being received by the sitting governing group, including the opposition.

SUDAN

Security Tensions with Ethiopia over refugees

As of January 4, the Ethiopian army deployed troops to the Sudanese border to prevent additional Tigrayan refugees from crossing the frontier into the refugee camp at Hamdayet.  One Sudanese official reported that more than 63,000 Ethiopian refugees are in Sudan.  UNHCR is in the process of moving tens of thousands of refugees from Hamdayet in Kassala State, at a sensitive point where Eritrea, Sudan, and Ethiopia meet, to Altanideba Camp in Gedaref State.  The Ethiopian Government claims to control the Tigray Region, but Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front fighters continue resistance in several areas, and a few TPLF troops are believed to have crossed into Sudan with the refugees.  (Sudan Tribune Jan 5) Accusations by Ethiopian officials that Sudanese troops have entered Sudan have been firmly denied by the head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

UNAMID Peacekeeping Force to Exit Darfur

UNAMID, the UN/African Union “hybrid” peacekeeping force in Darfur, first authorized in 2007, was terminated the UN Security Council December 22.  It will have six months to complete the drawdown.  UNAMID’s mission, with a force that at time exceeded 20,000, was to protect Darfuri civilians, but violence continued to afflict displaced persons and villages in much of Sudan’s Wild West for most of its tenure.  The overthrow of the Bashir Government in 2019 and the conclusion of an agreement between the Sudanese Government and most rebel groups removed much of the rationale for the peacekeeping force.  The Darfur Women’s Action Group (DWAG) has sharply criticized the Transitional Government for failing to curb continuing violence in Darfur, much of which has been blamed on the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force loyal to Gen. Mohamed Hamdan (Hemedti), a member of the Sovereign Council.  The DWAG charges that the RSF represents a newer version of the Janjawit Arab militias, which were responsible for genocidal acts against the “African” ethnic groups of Darfur – especially the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit.  The DWAG and the Sudan Professionals Association, which played a major role in the uprising against Bashir, have called for the disbanding of the RSF and its integration into the national army.

News from various sources

The Guardian 12/18/2021
South Sudan faces ‘catastrophic’ famine unless conflict ended

UN agencies say millions at risk if aid cannot reach areas of country stricken by floods, violence, and Covid-19.

The head of the UN’s South Sudan mission, David Shearer, told the security council this week that progress on the peace deal continues to stagnate while violence affected much of the country. Around 2,000 people have been killed in intercommunal violence during the past year, including at least 600 deaths in Jonglei state. Shearer warned that a surge in violence was likely during the approaching dry season. He said nine humanitarian workers had been killed in 2020.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/dec/18/south-sudan-faces-catastrophic-famine-unless-conflict-ended

The East African 12/21/2020

Igad lifts travel restrictions against Riek Machar

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) has formally lifted travel sanctions imposed on South Sudan’s First Vice President Riek Machar during the war. The decision, which follows several verbal confirmations by Igad envoys, means that Dr Mach is free to travel to any of the members of the region bloc and that his house arrest was no longer valid.

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/igad-lifts-travel-restrictions-against-riek-machar-3235256

Radio Tamazuj 12/17/2020

Cholera vaccination campaign underway in Bor

An oral cholera vaccination campaign is ongoing in the Jonglei State capital, Bor. The drive was launched on Tuesday and will run through till the 19th of this month.  Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, Dr. Samuel Majur, the Director-General in the state health ministry, “We are targeting 71, 852 people, ages from one year old and above, in Bor town and other parts, especially those in the displaced camps. The vaccine is administered through the mouth and it is safe and simple.”

According to WHO, during this first round of oral cholera vaccination, 88 percent of the target population, 63 280 individuals aged one year and above, were reached with the vaccine. The second round is scheduled to start in the first week of January 2021 to ensure full protection from cholera for the next three years.

https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/cholera-vaccination-campaign-underway-in-bor
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/over-63-000-vaccinated-against-cholera-in-bor-south

EyeRadio 12/16/2020

Bor Residents Appeal for Dike Construction Materials

Communities in Bor town in Jonglei state are appealing to the national government and partners to work with them to build a permanent dyke to help contain and prevent floods in the area. The area is flooded yearly by the overflow of the River Nile and has been devastated by flash floods that have been ongoing since May 2020.

“We need dyke repair, a permanent dyke, sandbags, food, clean water and excavator,” one resident of the town said. According to the state Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, more than 340,000 people from its nine counties have been displaced by the persistent flash floods. Many families have been affected and dozens of villages have been destroyed by floods in mostly Jonglei, Pibor, Upper Nile, Unity, Western, and Eastern Equatoria states. 

Peter Awel who represents those worst affected by the floods in four villages declared that the residents of Hai Machor, Amoyok, Konibor and Panaper are willing to chip in to help build the dykes. “The community here will provide labour as usual,” he said, adding that “we need machines for draining water when the dyke is constructed.” “There is also a need for resettlement, building materials, bamboos, iron sheet, among others.”

Author: Daniel Danis | Published: Tuesday, December 15, 2020
https://eyeradio.org/bor-residents-appeal-for-dyke-construction-materials/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!
We are grateful that you our supporters have continued to propel AFRECS in expanding our impact on the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.  We hope you will consider another generous gift — or whatever you can afford in this time of COVID  — as we begin our new program year  You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.

Board members Caroline Klam and Richard Jones contributed to editing this issue.

Update from Dane Smith 

Sudan Episcopal Bishops Hold Retreat

I received a welcome communication from Canon Musa Abujam, Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, whom I met for the first time during a visit in February (pre-COVID).  He reported that Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo of the Province of Sudan had gathered all the bishops of its five dioceses, with their wives, for a retreat at the beginning of December. I gather it was a joyful and fruitful gathering, which permitted an extensive exchange of views.

Bishop Abdu Elnur Kodi of the Diocese of Port Sudan indicates that the situation in Port Sudan and Kasala has calmed down after violence in recent months between the Nuba and Beni Amer groups. There have also been reports that the Beja, the largest group in the area, have been discontented.  Canon Musa said the area is now quiet, but there is still fear.  He warned that the situation could deteriorate again, but that people were once again moving freely. He noted with pride that the Episcopal cathedral in Port Sudan had made it possible for those fearful of the earlier unrest to stay within the compound for weeks until they felt safe enough to return home.

In the Diocese of Wad Medani, in east central Sudan astride the Blue Nile, the population has been deeply affected by the unprecedented floods of 2020.  Fortunately, the Episcopal Church has been able to offer help to affected Christians.

Canon Musa also noted that Suffragan Bishop Hassan Osman of the Kadugli Diocese says that the situation is calm in the town of Kadugli.  However, people are suffering from the high inflation-induced cost of living, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sudan Removed from Religious Freedom Violators List

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced December 7 that Sudan (along with Uzbekistan) had been removed from the Special Watch List for violations of religious freedom.  The action was “based on significant, concrete progress undertaken … over the past year. Their courageous reforms of their laws and practices stand as models for other nations to follow.”  Sudanese Christians have been enjoying new freedom since the overthrow of the Bashir regime in 2019.

Executive Director

Three AFRECS Board Members Recall former Prime Minister of Sudan Sadiq al-Mahdi

Our old friend Sadiq al-Mahdi died of COVID-19 on November 26..  The only freely elected leader of Sudan, who had continued to play an important and often influential role in Sudanese politics.  No one has the wasta to take his place.

• Thomas H. Staal, USAID Emergency Officer, Khartoum, following 1980s East Africa famine

Sadiq al-Mahdi was the only Prime Minister that I felt I had a personal equation with. It stemmed from a conversation we had at what must have been the 1988 Embassy July 4th reception. As I recall from the previous gatherings, he would arrive and go to the open space in the middle of the compound and accept and briefly respond to greetings without really engaging in conversations that other attendees tried to start. As I walked over to make my effort I recalled that someone had told me that he was an avid polo player. So, after exchanging pro forma greetings, I asked him if polo was still a popular sport in Khartoum. His face immediately lit up. He emphatically said “yes” and began telling me about it. He asked me if I played polo, and I said that I didn’t but I loved horses and would love to watch and begin to learn. He asked me if I had a horse. I told him about the two that two friends and I owned. I told him one was an Arabian-Thoroughbred Mix and the other was a former polo pony. He asked the pony’s name. When I told him it was Atrees, he laughed and exclaimed, “I know Atrees! He’s crazy!” We talked about Atrees and his eccentricities and had quite a bit to laugh about. He said he would like to introduce me to polo and suggested I give him a call so we could discuss it further. I didn’t take him up on that, but encountered him again some months later at the home of the people who owned and operated what was probably the only woman’s college in Sudan. He invited me to join him at a specific location and time. Before that date arrived, the military coup that brought the Islamist regime to power had occurred, and Sadiq was on the lam.

After Sadiq left the July 4 reception I had a lot of questions to answer from people who had been watching our exchange from a distance.

I know bad things happened on Sadiq’s watch to some southern civilian populations during the war with the SPLM/SPLA. But my gut tells me that those things didn’t happen because Sadiq wanted them to.

• Frederick E. Gilbert, former director, USAID Mission to Sudan

Sadiq al-Mahdi (SAM) loomed large over Sudan from the mid-1960s to his death at 84 last month in the United Arab Emirates, where he was being treated for COVID-19.  Great grandson of Muhammad Ahmed, the Mahdi, who led the first Islamic revolt against British colonialism in the 19th century, Sadiq became Prime Minister in 1966 at age 35.  He was head of the Umma Party, the political vehicle for the Ansar, the Sufi collective linked by allegiance to the Mahdi. His term lasted less than a year before defections in his own party led to his ouster.  With degrees in politics from Oxford, Sadiq was well-spoken in both English and Arabic, an attractive figure for international leaders.  Tall, powerfully built and athletic, he was a compelling personality.

After a public uprising led to the overthrow of military dictator Jaafar Nimeiry (1969-1985), the Umma Party won fair elections in 1986, when Sadiq again became Prime Minister.  There were high expectations that he would end the civil war in the South, which had rekindled in 1983, and bring about economic reforms to put Sudan on the road to prosperity.  He did neither.  He spent his time in political maneuvering, seeking to arrive at coordinated positions supported by the opposition Democratic Unionist Party, led by Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani (MOM) and his brother-in-law Hassan al-Turabi (HAT), chief of the National Islamic Front.  He feared that decisive action to end shar’ia (Islamic law – created by Nimeiri), essential to negotiating peace with John Garang’s Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), would lead to his ouster.  Nevertheless, the period of his rule was one of free-wheeling democracy — freedom of the press, no political prisoners, and vigorous political debate. It was a pleasant and stimulating time to work in Sudan. Sadiq’s dithering, however, gave time for Turabi (HAT) to plot with elements of the army for the overthrow of his regime, which occurred at the end of June 1989, ten days before my assignment ended as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Khartoum.  Sadiq was imprisoned along with other political leaders but soon released and continued to lead the greatly weakened Umma Party under Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s autocratic government.

During the 1986-89 period I had several meetings with Sadiq, sometimes accompanying Ambassador Norman Anderson, and sometimes on my own as Chargé d’Affaires.  I remember particularly vividly a meeting when I received an instruction from Washington to meet urgently with the Prime Minister to inform him that the U.S. Government was “outraged” about statements that he had recently made supporting positions taken by Muamar al-Qadhafi of Libya.  Sadiq took my demarche in stride without becoming angry, although he vigorously disputed the US position.  He was always cordial. There was room for plenty of back-and-forth.  Sadiq had the impressive habit of explaining his position by enunciating an eight or a ten-point plan precisely and without notes.  The problem was that Sadiq’s plans never seemed to get enacted.  A popular nickname for him was Abu Kalaam, “father of talk.”  In the US Embassy we sometimes said that Sadiq made decisions but no conveyor belt was ever created to implement them.

In 2011 I returned to Sudan as Senior Advisor to the US Government on Darfur.  I was astonished to find that beneath the surface of the widely detested Bashir regime, party politics were continuing little changed from the 1980s.  SAM, MOM and HAT were still running their political movements 22 years later. MOM’s party had actually joined the regime.  I met Sadiq several times at his home in Omdurman, sometimes attended by his daughter Miriam, who has inherited his leadership of the Umma Party. He welcomed me and responded readily to my questions about national leadership, conflict in Sudan, including in Darfur, and Sudan’s role in the region.  His mind was sharp. He was vigorous and still playing tennis. I considered him a friend and enjoyed that special hospitality for which the Sudanese are famous.

Sadiq’s death comes during a period of transformation in Sudan. Turabi died in 2016.  MOM survives them both, but is rarely heard from. The overthrow of Bashir in 2019 and the creation of an interim regime headed by a military Sovereignty Council and a civilian prime minster has brought new leaders to the fore in place of the Nile Valley Tribes (Ja’iliin, Shaigiya, Danagla) which have dominated the politics of Sudan since independence in 1956.  Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is from Kordofan; Sovereignty Council Deputy Chair Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) is from Darfur; Gen. Shams al-Din Khabbashi of the Sovereignty Council is from southern Kordofan.  Whatever happens during this fragile transition, the vast diversity of Sudan is much more likely to be represented at the political table than in the past.  SAM will be remembered fondly by many of us, not least for his enduring commitment to democracy, but not because of his flawed political leadership of his country.

• Dane F. Smith, Jr., Retired U.S. Ambassador to Guinea and Senegal, Deputy Chief of Mission in Sudan, 1986-89

The POC3 School in Juba is back in full swing!  Students are happy to be back in class.

NEWS

South Sudan Economic News

On November 11, 2020, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund approved for South Sudan a Rapid Credit Facility drawdown of about U.S. $62,300,000 (36,900,000 in Special Drawing Rights SDR). The loan will aid the government’s balance of payments situation and spending requirements.

The government urgently needs assistance to address the current national crisis resulting from various factors including armed conflict, floods, and a weak economy. Floods and recurring droughts, exacerbated by the climate crisis, have devastated the country’s food production capability. Save the Children, an international charitable NGO, has stated that the country faces the threat of famine, with 300,000 South Sudanese children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The country also deals with grave health threats, such as HIV/AIDS, which affects nearly 200,000 South Sudanese.

Sources:  Sudan Post, Sudan Tribune, African Arguments, Eye Radio

Peace in South Sudan is Still Elusive

As reported December 1st by the Associated Press, United Nations experts stated that the peace efforts in South Sudan have stalled. The coalition government formed in February has not met established deadlines, and Vice-President Riek Machar, the former opposition leader, is kept “out of the decision-making process.” A unified military organization has not been established. The panel that monitors sanctions against the country has recommended to the U.N. Security Council that the arms embargo be maintained and more effectively implemented. The international organization Amnesty International has also called for the continuation of the arms embargo in view of reported instances of violence.

In the meantime, on December 1st, first Vice-President Riek Machar addressed the conference of his political party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), declaring that peace is the only way for the country to achieve stability, and that his party Is committed to the pursuit of peace.

Sources: Associated Press, BBC Ne

BOOK REVIEW

A Rope from the Sky: The Making and Unmaking of the World’s Newest State, by Zach Vertin

Reviewed by Jonathan Harris, Diocese of Southwestern Virginia

As one who has long observed – however casually – the journey of the people of South Sudan, this book was incredibly helpful in putting together the pieces of their story and the current crisis.  It is very well written and presented in an engaging manner by a former US diplomat with 8 years of hands-on experience in South Sudan.  I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in South Sudan.  I listened to the audio book, with an excellent reader in Chris Ciulla.

The book helped me understand what has been and is going on in South Sudan and why.  Many of us were so excited for South Sudan to achieve independence in 2011 but then crestfallen to witness the slaughter and mayhem which ensued just two years later and continues to this day.  The South Sudanese rose up together to achieve liberation and independence in 2011 — only to turn on each other.  Vertin unpacks this juxtaposition for us.

Would it have made a difference if their iconic and visionary leader John Garang hadn’t died tragically in a helicopter crash in 2005?  Could he have led them to unity?  Were the differences and past tensions between Dinka and Nuer just too much to overcome for any leader?  Would it have made a difference if Salva Kiir – considered to lack political acumen – had stepped down in 2011 and just accepted the laurels of independence?  Could Kiir and Riek Machar have been able to rise above hardliners advising them in their respective tribes?  Did the trappings of power so insulate Kiir, Machar, and other top South Sudanese leaders that they could not speak up for their ordinary citizens?  Was the prospect of creating a new nation overnight just more than could be done, when many were illiterate with little to no experience with a governing body, let alone a participatory democracy?  With so much desperation, government officials can’t help but succumb to the needs of their extended family, thus proliferating nepotism and corruption.  To move from decades of brutal war to free nation – essentially overnight – is a tall order indeed.

Editors’. Note:  The author, Zack Vertin, worked in South Sudan with Crisis Group and later as an aide to U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, the late Princeton Lyman.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

Our supporters have continued to propel AFRECS so that we can expand our impact on the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.  We hope you will consider another generous gift — or whatever you can afford in this COVID year — as the year ends.  You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.

Board members Gwinneth Clarkson, Caroline Klam, and Steven Miles contributed to editing this issue.

Update from Dane Smith 

AFRECS joined Five Talents in 2019 to begin trauma healing instruction for savings groups of women and young men in Renk, capital of Upper Nile State.  The project was originally envisioned by the dynamic Bishop of Renk Diocese, Bishop Joseph Garang Atem.  Implementation is being undertaken by Five Talents and the Mothers Union.  Training of trainers has been supervised by the South Sudan Episcopal Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Committee.  AFRECS Executive Director Dane Smith, visiting Renk in February with Five Talents coordinator Anne Figge, came away impressed by the enthusiasm of the groups for the trauma healing element of the training.

During 2020, the project was locked down because of COVID in April, but 15 groups resumed in July, even in the face of severe flooding in the region. Seven more groups are expected to launch before the end of the year.  The groups meet weekly with each participant seeking to add very small amounts of their own savings to the pool.  Typically groups involving women spend their first year focusing on literacy and numeracy before getting basic financial training.  Young men are more likely to be literate and move more directly into learning financial skills.  Trauma healing instruction, with heavy emphasis on group discussion, is integrated into the other kinds of training. Five Talents and AFRECS are fortunate to have working with the groups two highly skilled chief trainers in trauma healing, Amer Deng Ayom and Ajak John Manyang.  Both organizations have worked to adapt the Quaker-initiated trauma healing curriculum initially applied to draw more on the Scripture lessons and Christian rituals familiar to South Sudanese Christians.

There is high demand for more trauma healing training for a South Sudan population that has been devastated by civil war, violence and chronic sexual assault against women.  AFRECS is therefore exploring with Five Talents the possibility of additional programming, particularly in Equatoria, the southern third of the country  Five Talents has recently launched a program for savings groups in the Diocese of Terekeka, a heavily rural and poor area north of Juba, where trauma healing may be appropriate.

In its approach to Equatoria, AFRECS would like to benefit from the experience of Retired Canon Sylvester Thomas Kambaya and his Education and Peace Foundation.  Canon Sylvester has been doing trauma healing work in Mundri Diocese, west of Terekeka, which he topped off in late 2019 with a successful four-day workshop for generals and civilian government officials from the area, including opposition military from SPLA/IO. There were about 90 participants.  The Mundri work has drawn on a workshop curriculum, Healing the Wounds of Trauma: How the Church Can Help, developed by the American Bible Society.

AFRECS is currently consulting with DT-Global, a firm which recently won a five-year $67 million USAID contract to continue conflict mitigation and peacebuilding in South Sudan working with civil society and religious leaders.  One of the foci of the project, which is just getting underway, is trauma awareness.   We will be working to link DT-Global with Episcopal church leaders active in peacebuilding, as project leaders seek to identify key locations for activity.  Ultimately, we are interested in whether the project can provide some support for faith-based trauma healing training.

Executive Director

Condition of Girls in South Sudan

In the African Report on Child Wellbeing 2020, released during the weekend of 21 November 2020, the non-profit organization African Child Policy Forum named South Sudan as one of the three worst African countries in their treatment of girls. The report classified nations according to their care for girls in the areas of healthcare, education and protection under the law.

According to the report, more than 80 percent of girls in the country do not have access to primary education. Child marriage, malnutrition, mental health challenges and human trafficking are also major threats to the welfare of South Sudanese girls. Gender-based violence, affecting both women and girls, has increased in South Sudan during the current coronavirus pandemic, according to the UN Population Fund and the South Sudanese Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare.

(Source: Eye Radio)

Continuing Differences over Pending New Constitution for South Sudan

The South Sudanese National Dialogue Conference closed on Tuesday, 17 November 2020, at which time the delegates issued a communique detailing the resolutions they have adopted. The Conference has endorsed a federal structure, with both federal and state levels of government. The Conference’s resolutions include:

State governments will enjoy a certain level of autonomy. Executive, legislative and judicial branches will exist at both levels. At the national level, the presidency will consist of five-year terms, limited to two terms for each president. The national capital shall be moved to Ramcel. Security and economic issues will be the responsibility of the national government. 32+ states will be established in the country, to be determined according to factors such as population and territoriality.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit has announced that the resolutions established by the Conference will be incorporated in the national constitution. It has been suggested that a select committee be appointed to follow up on implementation of the Conference’s resolutions.

(Sources: Eye Radio, The East African)

Physician, Public Health Specialist — and Author

Sacrifice and other short stories, by Edward Eremugo Kenyi
Reviewed by Richard J. Jones

To our list of physicians who are also writers — including Atul Gawande, William Carlos Williams, and Saint Luke — we can now add the name of Edward Eremugo Kenyi. This entrancing collection of fourteen short stories — published by Africa World Books, which is supported by the British historian of Sudan, Prof. Douglas H. Johnson — lets us taste being Sudanese. We are offered glimpses of children’s village life at home and in after-school adventures, the life of a Southern professional in Khartoum during the 1983-2005 war, con men at work in Juba while Independence Day fireworks are going off, and the search for companionship among the North American diaspora. One story deals with sibling rivalry which threatens the survival of Africans living in space 300 years after Earth has become unlivable. Readers of the Lost Boy genre of autobiography will encounter here something more modest and less hortatory. The diverse narrators of these stories speak with candor, wit, and rue.

Recommended as a Christmas gift for any friend of the Church in the Sudans, and any neighbor of Diaspora residents of North America.

The book was published in 2020 by Africa World Books, with ISBN number 978-0-6488415-8-6. Available from Amazon here.

Signed copies are available from the author at $15 including postage to anywhere in the US. Contact eremugo@gmail.com for details. Kenyi is a physician and currently works in the field of international public health at Johns Hopkins University. He is member of Maryland’s South Sudanese Christian fellowship.

AFRECS ACTS

Larry Duffee Joins Board of AFRECS

Beginning in 2010, Lawrence R. Duffee, MBA, MPA spent three years as a missionary from The Episcopal Church in the USA to the Episcopal Church of Sudan, after initially intending to devote only four weeks assisting with accounting in the the office of the Provincial Secretary in Juba. Thereafter he worked for three years with IMA (Interchurch Medical Assistance)World Health, followed by four years with the British civil engineering firm Mott MacDonald in their program to encourage enrollment and retention of girls in school, all of it in South Sudan.

He returned to the US in March 2020 and resumed working with IMA World Health (now under the umbrella of Corus International) as an International Finance Analyst.  In this role he provides support to IMA’s office in South Sudan and remains engaged with developments in that country. Recently elected unanimously to the Board of AFRECS, Duffee will take over the duties of Treasurer in 2021 from Bradford Langmaid, Jr.. Duffee’s home parish is St George’s Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is married with one young child.

Today is Giving Tuesday

As you renew your commitments, and examine your giving, please remember our work in the Sudans – Sudan and South Sudan, supporting faith-based peacebuilding.  Help us continue teaching and caring for the orphans in the United Nations POC3 Camp near Juba.  Help us expand trauma healing training for women and youth.

We, and they, offer our heartfelt THANKS for your gift – large or small!

AFRECS – American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans 

Board members Frederick E. Gilbert and Gwinneth A. Clarkson contributed to editing this issue.

Update from Dane Smith 

Jonglei Situation Precarious

Recent violence and flooding have generated enormous population disruption in South Sudan’s Jonglei state.  Some 350,000 are reportedly displaced, including 180,000 around Bor alone.  Distribution of food and other relief supplies has been limited, although those in and around Bor have been reached, according to the Jonglei Relief and Rehabilitation Commission.

Vulnerability of Humanitarian Workers

Since the beginning of 2020 nine humanitarian workers have been killed in the line of duty in South Sudan.  In late October two were murdered in Jonglei State and the Pibor Administrative Area, causing Plan International temporarily to halt its program.

South Sudan and Medical NGO’s

The health ministry of South Sudan has placed new limitations on international NGOs operating in the country’s healthcare sector. According to BBC News, those limitations include the requirement that all such organizations deposit their funds in a single account held by the central bank.  The NGOs are also prohibited from hiring local medical professionals, with the justification that such hiring leads to an “internal brain-drain”. The government’s rationale for these limitations is unlikely to be persuasive to foreign friends.

A new ambulance, purchased in Juba by Bishop Joseph Garang Atem
for the Diocese of Renk with funds from Virginia parishes.
Photo source: Jackie Kraus

Resumption of South Sudanese National Dialogue

The final conference of the South Sudan National Dialogue began November 3, supported by IGAD, the African Union and South Sudan’s neighbor governments.  However, the SPLM/IO declined to participate, along with Lam Akol’s National Democratic Movement.  Civil society and representatives of the South Sudan Council of Churches are participating.

Call for creation of government structures

Charles Tai Gitual, the interim chair of South Sudan’s Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC), is calling for a more rapid structuring of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, and the South Sudanese state governments.  The R-JMEC is an oversight body created under the 2018 peace agreement – the Revised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R/ARCSS).  Gitual also noted that women should make up 35% of representation at state levels.
(Source: Sudan Post)

Civil Conflict in Ethiopia Impacts Sudan

The Ethiopian Government’s offensive against theTigray regional government, coupled with reported shelling of Tigray by the Eritrean Government, has displaced thousands.  As of November 14 some 25,000 refugees had spilled over the Sudanese border toward Gedaref.

COVID in Sudan

As of the end of October Sudan had reported 13,804 cases of COVID-19, including 837 deaths.  There is little evidence that COVID is a significant issue in Sudan after a spike in cases in May and June.

Executive Director

Episcopal University of South Sudan:
A Conversation between Rick Houghton and Eeva John

Dr. Eeva John, picking up the phone at her home in the United Kingdom, had some good news to share with the Reverend Frederic L. Houghton, a former teacher of theology in Namibia and Kenya now living in Washington, DC, anad member of the AFRECS Board…

“The Episcopal University of South Sudan,” she announced, has received a large anonymous gift, arriving on the day of the Annual General Meeting of Sudan University Partners in the United Kingdom. This donation will enable construction to begin on the new campus at Rokon within the next six months.  EMI, an alliance of Christian architects and builders, will supervise the construction through its Uganda branch, partnering  with EUSS.  EMI was founded was founded in the United States  in 1982 , now with branches around the world.

“I am thrilled to learn from you of this wonderful gift from God” Houghton said. “And it isn’t even Christmas yet! We may well thank God for this good news and show our gratitude by renewed efforts.”

Many readers will know Dr. Eeva John, an associate of Ridley Hall at Cambridge University, as a staunch advocate of the church in Sudan and of the Episcopal University in particular. She graced AFRECS with her presence at our Chicago conference. Her resumé reveals  a PhD in chemistry, a diploma and Master’s degree in theology, and teaching experience in three British seminaries. Working for the Archbishop of Canterbury, she coordinated a taskforce which produced a common curriculum for all British seminaries.

Dr. John tempered her good news with details. “The existing seminaries of The Episcopal Church of South Sudan are teaching again after a Covid shutdown, but they are struggling financially, due to the inflation produced by civil unrest and lack of government leadership. The formal licensing of the Episcopal University seems to be stalled, with Archbishop Justin Badi now involved in some tactful inquiries to speed things up. The search for a chancellor is on hold until the Covid situation abates, but a Zoom network is being set up so that local and overseas leaders can engage in joint planning. Our prayers, financial aid, and advocacy are still needed.”

Schooling Interrupted by Virus, then Floods

Photo source: Nichola Mandil, BBC News

The State of Jonglei in South Sudan, along with the rest of the world, has suffered the ravages caused by the current pandemic. Now catastrophic flooding has occurred in Jonglei and Unity State. Many thousands have lost their homes, crops and cattle, and hunger has increased. The schools in Bor, the capital of Jonglei, were closed for several months. They reopened in September, but students have encountered major difficulty in getting to school because of recent flooding. The entire state of Jonglei expected about 4,000 candidates to take final examinations early next year. However, many students in Bor and other locations have had to drop out. Flooding has made it impossible for them to continue their schooling. A local secondary education official, Francis Mayen, has said that flooding will not force the school system in Bor to close, but might require some schools to relocate.

There are not nearly enough schools or trained teachers to educate all the children and young adults in South Sudan. However, the Episcopal Church is active in the field of education, with five theological colleges, four Bible schools, and a vocational training center. In addition, some 8,000 students attend the church’s twelve secondary schools and 280 primary and pre-primary schools. The latest ambitious project is the creation of The Episcopal University of South Sudan with its hub in Rokon, near Juba.**

From news.un.org, ecssup.org

The Good Lie

First screened at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival, later promoted on U.S. college campuses by The Enough Project, the film The Good Lie remains, almost a decade later, an entertaining and instructive introduction for North Americans to the South Sudanese among us. Values of Dinka society and American society clash, and the audience chuckles.

Along with Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama, Walk the LIne) — a real-life friend of the Sudans and an Episcopalian — the cast includes the African actors Arnold Oceng, Kuoth Wiel, Femi Oguns, Ger Duany, and Emmanuel Jal. (The three principal Sudanese actors, all former refugees, encourage donations to UNICEF.) John Prendergast, an American activist, appears in a scene at the U. N. refugee camp handing the refugees a block of ice as a pre-departure lesson.

With flashbacks to the burning of villages in 1983 and the 1,000 mile trek of the young survivors from Bahr al Ghazal region to a U.N. refugee camp in the Kenyan desert, the story picks up in 2000 when 3,600 out of Kakuma’s 10,000 residents are selected to resettle in the U.S. We follow Amere, Abital, Jeremiah, and Paul as they deplane in Kansas City and start to look for work, but Abital is separated from her brother for lack of a sponsor family and is sent to Boston. The action culminates on New Year’s Day 2002, when the Midwestern “Lost Boys” regather to celebrate their collective, immigration service-assigned official birthday.

Parishioners of Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, Virginia enjoyed viewing The Good Lie in 2019 at Washington and Lee University, through the offices of Douglas Cummings, professor of journalism, prior to welcoming South Sudanese guests into their homes for the AFRECS annual conference.

Asylum Petition Awaits Hearing

David Mayen Dengdit, a political dissident who resigned in 2018 as an aide to Vice President James Wani Igga of South Sudan, is pursuing an LLM degree in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy at Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, while awaiting a U.S. immigration court hearing on his petition for asylum. Mayen writes, “I find it consoling to see oneself and one’s limited-choice challenges as a small, if not immaterial, grain in a somewhat imperfect world. I appreciate my current blessings, in comparison to other millions who have lost hope in a better tomorrow.”

ICYMI: Presence, Peacebuilding, and Pastoral Mission in South Sudan Webinar recording available online

A recording of the CEEP-sponsored webinar about the work of AFRECS, “Presence, Peacebuilding, and Pastoral Mission in South Sudan” is available on the CEEP website.  Our Executive Director, Dane Smith, moderated a panel discussion with AFRECS President Phil Darrow; Rev. Joseph Billal, Vice Chancellor of the Episcopal University of South Sudan; and Jackie Kraus, member of the Task Force on Dialogue with the South Sudanese Anglican Diaspora.

How to Find Back Issues of AFRECS E-Blast

An archive of all E-blasts can be found by clicking “E-Blasts” on the bottom of any E-blast article. You will see 5 recent E-blast links appear on the right-hand sidebar on each E-blast if you are reading it on your desktop computer. Also, there are arrow buttons on the bottom of the post: these will move you either forward or backward to the E-Blast immediately preceding or the immediately following the one you are looking at.

Issue edited by AFRECS Board Members Frederick Houghton and Gwinneth Clarkson

Update from Dane Smith 

With the renewal of diplomatic travel, the US Government has recently reengaged with the Troika (U.S., U.K., Norway) in active diplomacy in South Sudan. In September Special Envoy Stuart Symington traveled to Juba with other members, meeting with President Kiir, Vice-President Machar, plus church and civil society representatives, urging the leaders to pursue a peace dividend by constituting the legislature and completing the appointment of state and local officials.

They then proceeded to Rome in early October for Sant’ Egidio-sponsored talks with non-signatories of the R/ARCSS. (South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance, which includes Gen.Thomas Cirillo (NAS), Lam Akol (NDM), and two other groups.) Those talks, which followed a cease-fire agreement in January, violated by both sides, reportedly endorsed a Declaration of Principles as a basis for further talks between commanders in November. Despite these negotiations, Stimson Center reports that violence against civilians has been much higher in 2020 than 2019, most of it from inter-communal violence.

The United Nations World Food Program, which received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, reports that unprecedented flooding has “plunged 700,000 into a hunger and livelihoods crisis.” Nearly half of South Sudan is under water. Jonglei is the hardest hit area, constituting a third of the 700,000 affected. 85,000 are displaced. The WFP is currently feeding 300,000.

On October 6^th the UN Human Rights Council released a report from the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan stating that in 2017 and 2018 government forces deliberately withheld food and other essential resources from the Luo and Fertit populations in Western Bahr al-Ghazal, then under SPLM-IO control. Troops were encouraged to pillage their villages, thereby using starvation as a weapon of warfare in violation of international law. The same is true for forces loyal to Riek Machar in Central Equatoria State. These actions, according to the report, destroyed the social fabric of many rural communities.

From Khartoum, Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo, Primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, reports that the priorities for his Province are: peace, return of refugees and displaced people under conditions of food security, no more killing of innocent civilians or rape of women, and freedom of worship.

The main news out of Sudan is floods, the worst in decades. They have badly hit not only Khartoum, but also Blue Nile, Sennar, and North and West Darfur. The UN reports that 1.4 million people are food insecure, 800,000 homeless, and 21 dead. Politically, the GOS formally signed the Juba Agreement with the Sudan Revolutionary Front, which included major Darfuri rebel groups (Justice & Equality Movement (JEM) and Minni Minawi), but not SPLM/N Abdelaziz al-Hilu and Darfuri rebel Abdelwahid al-Nur (SLM).  Negotiations continue with al-Hilu, based on a separate truce signed in Addis. Prime Minister Hamdok fired the Governor of Kassala after violence there.

Executive Director

November Surprise

AFRECS is holding a Zoom Webinar! You won’t want to miss it!  Executive Director, Dane Smith, will moderate a panel in a Q&A session about AFRECS’ Purpose, Programs and Plans: Panelists are AFRECS President Phil Darrow; Rev. Joseph Bilal, Vice Chancellor of the Episcopal University of South Sudan; and Jackie Kraus, member of the Task Force on Dialogue with the South Sudanese Anglican Diaspora.

          

Where?  the CEEP Network*
WHEN? Veteran’s Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020
TIME?  3:00 PM-EST
Just log into CEEPnetwork.org, CLICK “Upcoming Webinars/Resources”,
scroll down to click “Register Here” and follow the prompts.  Enjoy!
*CEEP = Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes

The Sudanese and South Sudanese Diaspora in North America

A conference of South Sudanese pastoral leaders serving congregations in the United States, scheduled for a Kansas City airport hotel in April 2020, had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 epidemic. This conference was intended to help the Task Force on Dialogue with South Sudanese Anglican Diaspora, created by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church in 2019 and chaired by the Rev. Ranjit Mathews and Bishop Alan Scarfe of Iowa, to learn from pastoral leaders’ varied experience across the United States. (Canadian congregations were not included.) Members include Bishop Martin Field of West Missouri, Ms. Jackie Kraus of Chicago, Mr. Buck Blanchard of Colorado, and the Rev. Michael Kiju Paul of Texas, with assistance from the Rev. Stan Runnels, retired priest of West Missouri. Meanwhile, Sudanese and South Sudanese Christian congregations are continuing their life together — apart.

Multilingual Maryland Fellowship

In the region of Baltimore, Maryland, South Sudanese Christians who formerly met at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in the suburb of Towson are maintaining their fellowship by teleconference. In response to the restrictions on face-to-face gatherings during the Coronavirus epidemic, this group takes to their telephones every Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Songs are sung – in English, Arabic, and even in Lingala by one Congolese member. Petitions and thanksgivings are spoken, testimonies and a word of encouragement are offered, and members are strengthened for the week to come.

Among the leaders of this fellowship are Immanuel Hakim, a building contractor, James Okeny, a counselor with a City of Baltimore-funded housing assistance agency; and Dr. Edward Eremugo Kenyi, a researcher and international public health advisor specializing in maternal and child health.  Some members participate additionally in more established congregations, such as Greater Grace in Towson, where for the past seven years Kenyi has been studying in their Bible College.

The Right Reverend Robert Ihlof, retired Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, who currently assists in the diocese, has offered to consult with these leaders as they search for an appropriate meeting place, looking ahead to the time when worship and other activities can resume in person.

New South Sudanese congregation joins the Diocese of Iowa

A new congregation in the Diocese of Iowa is that of Trinity Cush Episcopal Church, based in Des Moines. Admitted as a congregation on October 24, 2020 during the annual diocesan convention, Trinity Cush is composed of members of the South Sudanese Diaspora, principally of the Dinka tribe.

Two South Sudanese Pastors prepare for Ordination at Virginia Theological Seminary

Joseph Allak of the Diocese of Nebraska and Samson Mamour of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia are in their third and second years, respectively, of fulltime study towards the Master of Divinity degree. Joseph, after spending two years in residence in Alexandria, Virginia, has returned with his wife and four children to his home parish of All Saints, Omaha, where he will complete his final year of study on-line . One of the remaining courses he must complete is in church administration. Samson is back in residence at the seminary in Alexandria for his second year. His family remains at home in Roanoke, Virginia, where Peter Alier provides pastoral care for the congregation which meets at St. James Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Susan E. Bentley provides oversight.

Tale of Two Dioceses: Nzara, Episcopal Church of South Sudan, and Iowa, Episcopal Church of the United States

Since 2012 the Dioceses of Nzara and Iowa have maintained an active companion relationship, providing mutual prayer, fellowship and support. The bishops involved, including the Rt. Revd. Alan Scarfe, have found the relationship mutually transformative in terms of support, encouragement, and fellowship.

One important project in the Diocese of Nzara is the new Good Samaritan Birthing Center, a pre-natal and birth clinic serving over 500 mothers and infants every month. The Center was made possible thanks to a generous United Thank Offering grant supplemented by an International Development Grant from the Diocese of Iowa. The building was constructed by the faithful in Nzara town using local resources and labor. It is staffed by trained midwives who travel on bicycles to attend mothers in remote areas. The Center contains essential medical and clinical equipment, and the Mothers’ Union of South Sudan has assumed the responsibility of maintaining the inventory of basic equipment. This very successful project has already led to a lower mortality rate in Nzara for mothers and infants.

In February 2020 a large wildfire broke out in Nzara, displacing thousands of South Sudanese, leaving them without food or shelter. The Diocese of Iowa raised $15,000 to help Nzara with fire relief.

The Diocese of Nzara is launching an awareness campaign against Covid-19. The United Thank Offering has approved a grant to support this effort, supplemented by an International Development Grant from the Diocese of Iowa.

Another area of progress in Nzara is access to clean water. Aqua Africa, a non-profit organization based in Omaha, Nebraska, has built the first water tower in Nzara, operated and maintained by local personnel. This year deep wells in five remote villages in the Diocese have also been completed by Aqua Africa. These projects began with discussions that took place at the AFRECS conference in Des Moines, Iowa in 2016 — an example of the way the network which is AFRECS can lead to unexpected successes.

AFRECS Actions

A donation of $6,200, collected by the Sudanese Community Church and St. John’s Cathedral in the Diocese of Colorado in memory of the late beloved Fr. Ayyoubawaga Bushara Oja Gafour, was transferred in October to the Diocese of Kadugli, Episcopal Church of Sudan. These funds will be used by Bishop Andudu Adam el-Nail to support education for girls.

On Oct. 14, after the burning of the cathedral and killing of the dean at Makol Chuei, $2,000 was sent to assist the Diocese of Athooch, in the Internal Province of Jonglei, Episcopal Church of South Sudan, where the bishop is the Rt. Revd. Moses Anur Ayom.

On Oct. 15, Thomas H. Staal was elected to the AFRECS Board of Directors. Tom retired in 2019 as Counselor after a career with the United States Agency for International Development, starting as an emergency program officer in Khartoum in the aftermath of the East Africa famine of the mid-80s, then as a Food for Peace officer covering Ethiopia, southern Sudan, Uganda, and Somalia. Born in Bahrain to missionary parents, raised in Iraq and Kuwait plus boarding school in southern India, he holds degrees from Hope College (Michigan), Columbia University, and the National Defense University. Prior to his work with USAID, Tom had been country representative for World Vision International in Sudan, 1985 -88, and government relations representative for Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in Saudi Arabia, 1977-83. Tom’s wife, Ann, formerly taught music at the International School of Khartoum and Rosslyn Academy (Nairobi), earned an M.A. in theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, and is ordained in the Mekane Yesus Ethiopian Church.

Board Members editing this issue: Gwinneth Clarkson and Richard J. Jones

Expanding the School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors

As we go to press, we are excited to share with you that the children in the School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors are back in class!

 

When the Government of South Sudan ordered all schools to close in March 2020 to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 to children and teachers, Bishop John Gatteck decided to turn the situation into an opportunity to grow the School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors at the UN Protection of Civilians (POC3) camp near Juba.  Until now, the eight grades were taught together in two classrooms. Together with the teachers and staff, and with the financial support of AFRECS, Bishop Gatteck organized the refurbishment of the existing school facilities and the construction of new classrooms in order to enable the School to grow from its current 150 students to over 350 students.

The School opened in January 2017 to provide education to girls and boys in the UN POC3 camp who had lost one or both parents during the civil strife that had caused tens of thousands to flee their homes.  The children are taught English, Math, Social Studies and Science, and each child receives a meal a day. Over 90% of the children pass their annual final exams, and the School recently ranked near the top among schools in the area for students’ scores on standardized exams. There is great demand in the POC3 camp for more children to be able to attend the School, but without building additional classrooms and feeding facilities, there was little room to grow.  Upon completion of the five buildings under construction, the School will be able to increase the number of children it teaches and feeds.

In the current environment, it is also important to address the health challenge of Covid-19, particularly in the UN camps where thousands live close together.  The School teachers have been working with UN authorities to teach children and others about proper health practices to try to avoid Covid-19.  Thus far, POC3 has largely avoided major outbreaks of the disease. With gatherings prohibited, classes are being taught by radio, but few students have access to radio receivers.

One person affected by the School is Mary Nyabil, a 42 year-old single parent of three young boys.  Like many other women in South Sudan, she lost her husband and her home, and has no means of financial support. Unable to walk since birth, she was transported to POC3 by the International Committee of the Red Cross.  Her three children have been integrated into the School, where they are being taught and receive a daily meal.  Mary recently shared with us that, despite her difficulties, her “only hope always was for my children to be in school knowing that education is important them. I’m very delighted for AFRECS for they’re helping children get education.”

AFRECS has been privileged to serve as the primary financial supporter for the School, and to support the dedicated efforts of Bishop Gatteck and other leaders of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, including the Primate Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, to grow the School.

Please consider a generous gift to help us complete the new school buildings.  Your donation now will enable us to expand our Education and Meals Ministry to an ever-growing number of girls and boys who hunger to be part of it.  Please indicate on your check, or your donation on the AFRECS website, if you would like your contribution to be designated to the “POC3 School”.  And thank you for your support!

Killing and Rape of Civilians Necessitates Work of Education and Trauma Healing

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan continues its work of education and trauma healing against a backdrop of tragic events. An American military historian and ethnographer is questioning why there has so far been no investigation of the crime of genocide occurring in South Sudan over the five years beginning December 2013.

Clémence Pinaud, of the University of Indiana’s Department of International Studies, has interviewed 215 Nuer women in Unity State and 110 women in Central Equatoria State who witnessed gang rapes of civilians by combatants. Her interviewees included 28 survivors of rape. Their detailed testimony to the killing of husbands and children, as well as the raping and killing of women, leads Pinaud to conclude that the perpetrators’ persistent intent is to destroy a feared or hated ethnic group – a key provision of the1948 United Nations Convention on the Crime of Genocide. (“Genocidal Rape in South Sudan: Organization, Function, and Effects,” Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 42, August 2020.)

South Sudanese Woman Receives Peace Prize

The U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent US Government agency, last month awarded its Women Building Peace Award 2020 to Rita M. Lopidia, a South Sudanese civil society leader.  Lopidia is Executive Director and Co-founder of Eve Organization for Women Development. She will use the $10,000 prize money to invest in her “incubator” project to encourage young women leaders, as well as providing some funds to orphans and street children in Juba.  Rita Lopidia has participated in peace talks in Addis Ababa and Khartoum.  She signed the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R/ARCSS) on behalf of the South Sudanese Women Coalition for Peace, a group of 50 women’s organizations.

South Sudan Struggles with COVID School Closings
From The Rev. Frederick L. Houghton, AFRECS Board Member

 The School in Protection of Civilians Camp #3 in better times – preparing for COVID-19.  
From AFRECS photo archives

While the US debates rage on whether to reopen schools, an even more painful choice faces our sisters and brothers in South Sudan. Emerging from decades of civil war and ethnic unrest, South Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world– 27%. (Niger is the lowest, at 19%.)  Primitive as many of them are, South Sudanese schools were making a heroic effort to improve this situation. One of the most promising has been the school for refugee children in Juba which AFRECS supports. All of this came to a halt with COVID-19.

Now NGOs such as Save the Children, UNICEF, and UNESCO are calling for gradual reopening of schools, pointing out that other sectors are already reopening. The SS Ministry of Health has chosen a more cautious approach: “According to Undersecretary Kuyok Akol Kuyok, it is not safe to reopen schools, especially after the Ministry of Health and WHO released a statement saying that the spread of COVID-19 will increase by next week.”  UNICEF and UNESCO are worried: “The long-term impact of extending the school lockdown risks ever greater harm to children, their future, and their communities. Sadly, on these fronts, the evidence is overwhelming.”

We ask your prayers for the South Sudanese as they face choices even more painful than our own. In addition, I expect that when schools can reopen there will be a sudden demand for aid to fund reorganizing, repairs, and restarting. I am going to write a check to AFRECS with the designation “school reopening”; perhaps other readers will be moved to do likewise.

News and Notes

From the Darfur Women Action Group

Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) announced August 14 that heavy rain and flash floods had severely damaged homes and displaced people in areas including Khartoum, Blue Nile, and Darfur. Floods have killed at least 6 people, destroyed over 3,000 houses, and damaged property on an unimaginable level.

In Kabkabiya, over 500 homes have been destroyed by the rain with almost another 5,000 severely damaged. Those who have escaped the flooding are now taking shelter in schools and other people’s intact homes. Many more people are still missing, and their relatives are still searching for them. The five camps for internally displaced people (IDP’s) have been especially hard-hit by the disaster, with another 2,600 IDP shelters destroyed and over 13,000 damaged across all camps. All are in urgent need for assistance.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released an update last Tuesday highlighting the severity of the damage caused by the flash floods.

Arrival of Sarah Cleto Rial in Wau, first Woman Governor of a State in South Sudan
From The Rev. Kwathi Akol Ajawin in Annandale VA

The Honorable Sarah Cleto Rial, Governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, arrived from Juba in Wau Nar on August 11 to assume her new duties. She was accompanied by a delegation from the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Political Bureau including D/Chairman and current Minister of Mining Hon. Henry Dilang Odwar and Chairperson of the National Students League Cde. Gai Mayen Luk, together with other senior members from the SPLM-IO.

According to a report on Facebook, they were received in big numbers by citizens of Western Bahr el Ghazal state in Wau town, demonstrating their support in achieving peace among the communities of Wau and their neighbors.  The Facebook report concluded, “Thank you citizens of Wau Nar, for your great support. Your party SPLM-IO will deliver anything at its disposal to make sure citizens are living in peaceful coexistence. Viva!”

Kwathi Akol Ajawin, pastor of the African Sudanese Fellowship in Annandale, Virginia, commented, “We wish her well.”  Sara Cleto Rial was the Co-Convenor of the South Sudanese Network for Peace and Reconciliation (SSDNRP) prior to last month, while living and working in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Publication of the Autobiography of Dr. Oliver Meru Duku:
Physician and Priest – (1935– 2013)
By The Rev. Richard Jones

The self-effacing portrait of a man who made his way from a traditional polygamous family in southern Sudan through British Colonial schools, followed by medical education at Tübingen University, to help build up the public health service of a fledgling African state and the theological schools of a church multiplying exuberantly during fifty years of devastating war.

Duku resisted government officials bent on Islamization but made friends with a traditional Muslim healer. He candidly recalls the internal struggles of a multiethnic group of first- and second-generation believers in Jesus as paramount chief over all tribes of the earth. As a Bible teacher, he ponders how the homelessness of civilian Sudanese populations in his lifetime seems to repeat the ancient pattern of God’s punishing his disloyal Chosen People by exile in Babylon.

“This autobiography shows how God calls and uses individuals in the most resistant milieu of ministry. I am convinced it can be useful for the Pastoral Dimension course taught at any Bible school or seminary”. The Very Rev. Samuel Galuak Marial, Principal, Bishop Gwynne College, Juba, South Sudan

“Oliver Duku’s autobiography will contribute to our goal: to collect, preserve, and make freely accessible biographical accounts and church histories – from oral and written sources – integral to a scholarly understanding of African Christianity.” Dr. Jonathan J. Bonk, Director, Dictionary of African Christian Biography, Boston University, USA

“This publication will contribute to the limited written record of the history of the church in Sudan and South Sudan.”
Rt. Rev. Anthony Dagasuk Poggo, Advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury on Anglican Communion Affairs

To order, contact richard.j.jones@comcast.net
Soft cover, US$10 plus postage. Hardcover: US$40 plus postage
69 pages
ISBN 978-1-7923-2944-9

From Churchtimes
Gunmen kill dean and set fire to cathedral in South Sudan
by Rebecca Paveley , 14 August 2020

St Luke’s Cathedral, Makol Chuei, in Athooch diocese, before the attack on 27 July

The Dean of St Luke’s Cathedral, Makol Chuei, in South Sudan, the Very Revd Daniel Garang Ayuen, has been shot dead, together with 32 others, in an attack in which the cathedral and the entire village were set ablaze.

Gunmen stormed the cathedral compound in Makol Chuei, in the diocese of Athooch, in an attack two weeks ago. At least 14 women and children who had sought refuge in the church’s compound were killed. Six children were abducted by the attackers and later killed. In a later attack in a different village, Jalle, an archdeacon, the Ven. Jacob Amanjok, was killed, along with three pastors.

The All Africa Conference of Churches called on regional and international bodies to “take this attack as an assault on world peace, and demand for the full implementation of the long delayed peace agreement in South Sudan [News, 20 December 2019], to bring to a stop the intercommunal violence.”

The interim general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Revd Professor Ioan Sauca, said: “After years of insecurity and instability, it should be clear that violence is not the solution to the challenges in South Sudan.”

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/14-august/news/world/gunmen-kill-dean-and-set-fire-to-cathedral-in-south-sudan

From Al-Jazeera Live
Death toll from South Sudan soldiers, civilians clashes hits 127

The death toll from clashes between South Sudan security forces and armed civilians in the north-central Warrap state has risen to 127 [as of August 12]. At least 32 others were injured over the weekend when soldiers clashed with civilians refusing to be disarmed as part of a peace agreement.

Clashes erupted on Sunday when soldiers of the South Sudan People’s Defense Force tried to disarm civilians in the town of Tonj as part of a recent peace agreement, according to James Mabior, the town’s councilor. Some civilians refused to hand over their guns at a market, with a number of bystanders joining the fight that ensued, Mabior said. The fighting quickly spread to nearby villages, with armed civilians attacking an army base in the nearby town of Romic on Monday morning, Koang said.

The disarmament of civilians is part of a peace agreement signed between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar in February after many months of negotiations.

So far, a partial unity government has been formed and state governors have been appointed but parliament has yet to be reconstituted.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/death-toll-south-sudan-soldiers-civilians-clashes-hits-127-200812094926256.html

from the New Humanitarian 08/15/20
Flooding and fighting in South Sudan

President Salva Kiir declared a state of emergency [August 12] in central Jonglei and Pibor regions following flooding and communal violence. More than 200,000 people have been forced from their homes as water levels rose by 1.5 meters in some areas after heavy rains. Flooding has also affected neighboring Upper Nile and Unity states. The government has called on humanitarian agencies to provide immediate aid, but inter-communal unrest in Jonglei and Pibor – in which aid workers have been killed – will complicate operations. The conflict has displaced 100,000 people since the beginning of the year. They will miss the current planting season – deepening their food insecurity. Pre-positioned food stocks were also looted in the violence. South Sudan is in the lean period before the November harvest, and emergency levels of food needs are widespread. The US-funded famine monitor FEWS NET is anticipating the highest “catastrophe” level in some areas of Jonglei affected by fighting, and says “urgent and sustained food assistance” will be needed even after the harvest.

Reflection on the time of Coronavirus
By the Reverend Samuel G. Marial, Principal of Bishop Gwynne College 14th April 2020

Sudanese refugees observe physical distancing during a food and soap distribution at Ajuong Thok camp in South Sudan, April 2020. ©UNHCR/Elizabeth Marie Stuart

Coronavirus has shaken the whole world to its core. Science seems to have failed. People are dying in thousands even in countries where advancement in science is at its peak. Some plagues in the past used to be tied to a particular country or region. Now, as one can travel from New York to Capetown in a few hours, disease too travels far and wide.

South Sudan is a part of “global village” and has recorded a few cases of COVID-19. The leadership of the land has proactively put in place measures in forfending COVID-19. These measures include closing down learning institutions, churches, other places of worship, and other places of gatherings.

This order has sparked a loud uproar within Christian spheres. Some do not like the idea of halting prayer services on Sundays. In their view, it looks like the Devil has got an upper hand over the situation. Some question the appropriateness of the order. Some church members do not understand that the order is made as a way to eradicate this deadly plague through social distancing. That is a way available and affordable to save lives.

Social distancing is even more bearable if people keep in their homes and worship God with their loved ones.

COVID-19 is a global threat. The government of South Sudan is not a threat to faith. That is why the Primate of Episcopal Church of South Sudan, the Most Revd Dr. Justin Badi Arama, has instructed the adherents of ECSS to worship at their homesteads.

This is something that has never happened before. Praying at home is a new phenomenon, in the sense that Christians have not clearly learned that the real church is in the home.

However, there is a fear entailing that Christians may backslide or regress from their faith. It is an undeniable reality, in fact people may get used to this social distancing and some may likely say, “These days, I prefer praying at home.” It is a common language used by those who slowly glide away from their faith. As most of us in the country are pastoralists, it is our duty to look after the flocks. Who does not search his/her flocks when they get lost?

Church is a common worship space where members of a particular parish or cathedral normally congregate on Sunday. Home is a place for private or family worship, and that is where Christian faith is fully practiced.

Call for Prayers and Support

©UNICEF South Sudan/2020/Ongoro

Please keep the people of South Sudan and Sudan in your prayers, as the pandemic further complicates their already very difficult existence. We urge you to reach out to individuals and families you are already connected with through email, WhatsApp and other social media.

Please consider making a contribution to AFRECS, including the response to COVID-19.  To do so click here. Meanwhile stay safe where you are in the United States.

Under the Mango and Under the Beech

Archbishop Samuel Peni conducting the business of the Diocese under a mango tree in Yei.

In the agricultural town of Yei in Central Equatoria, Archbishop Samuel Peni sits under a mango tree to receive visitors and make phone calls to care for Christians who refrain from gathering in buildings for worship in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19. To broadcast a sermon or instructions on public health, he goes to the studio of Radio Yambio.

Parishioners in Bedford, Virginia worshipping under a beech tree.

In the county seat of Bedford County, in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, Episcopalians refrain for the same reason from gathering to receive Holy Communion, but beginning on June 14th at 9 AM parishioners resumed meeting under a huge beech tree for Morning Prayer.

From plague, pestilence, and famine, both groups pray, “Good Lord, deliver us.” With all green trees upon the earth, both glorify the Lord.

Notes and News

A South Sudanese Political Dissident Seeks Asylum
By David Mayen Dengdit

I came to the United States in March 2018,.When I  left South Sudan in February. I had two thoughts: either swallow my pride and return to South Sudan after a short trip to East Africa and the US or follow my heart and leave the country permanently.

What made my first choice somewhat enticing was my prestigious job as an aide to the country’s Vice-President-James Wani Igga, which availed me certain privileges and opportunities that few of my countrymen/women could enjoy. The second choice of leaving, which I ultimately took, was important for me to be at peace with my conscience.

Some weeks after arriving in the US, I explained the reasons for my resignation in an interview on Voice of America’s Focus on South Sudan. I cited the atrocious human rights violations and appalling war crimes I witnessed and that continued to be committed by a government I had served for five years.

A couple of months later, I decided to seek asylum in the US. I had hoped that my earlier brief stay with my wife and kids in Denver (2010-12) and (2006-7), in addition to having my mother and sisters in the US, would make my asylum process somewhat easier than what an average asylum seeker faces. I was wrong. Over the past two years, I have pursued my application for asylum through the Immigration Court to plead against removal proceedings.

To prove my worth and possible usefulness, I received admission at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. As a candidate for an LLM in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy, I could apply and take the Bar examination. I hope that my education would be persuasive in the eyes of the immigration judge. However, the chances of my asylum request being granted remain very slim.

American friends have helped with the legal fees, which have been significant. Many of these friends are involved with AFRECS, and I have attended AFRECS meetings over the years. The situation regarding asylum seekers has been especially difficult in recent years in the US. All this is challenging, but I am thankful to have been given employment authorization to earn a living for my family. I ask for your prayers, as my next hearing is August 13th in Denver, CO.

[The author can be reached at mayen.ayarbior@gmail.com. His mother is Helen Achol Abyei, author of the plays Tribalism No More and Cultural Clash. Ed.]

A REMINDER . . . . and breaking news!

Breaking News: AFRECS has received a matching grant of $2,000 for COVID-19 relief in Sudan, so the first $2,000 of contributions will be matched, doubling the value to the people of Sudan.  Please give today!

Reminder: AFRECS has long sought to help the Episcopal Church of South Sudan to build its capacity and raise its voice for peace and healing in South Sudan, and the current COVID-19 crisis raises an especially poignant call for our help in this regard.  Rev. Dr. Joseph Bilal chairs a Task Force to mobilize all levels of the church in the campaign to address COVID-19. Our support will be vital in helping raise their collective voices. AFRECS is financing the purchase of MEGAPHONES for rural churches, a primary request of the Task Force, as well as support for radio broadcasts and the printing and distribution of educational materials. Please join members of the AFRECS Board and other friends who have already committed support for the ECS COVID-19 Task Force. Checks made out to AFRECS can be marked “Task Force.” You may also give online through the AFRECS website.

HELP US SUPPLY MEGAPHONES FOR RAISING VOICES!!!