Africa Faith & Justice Network (AFJN) Hosts Briefing on Sudan & South Sudan

by Bayor Chantal Ngoltoingar 

On Wednesday, July 11, 2018, Mr. Berhanu Sinamo, president of International Coordination of Young Christian Workers (ICYCW) and I joined our host, Africa Faith & Justice Network (AFJN) and staff from several U.S. and international organizations at a briefing on South Sudan. The event’s speakers were Bishop Macram Max Gassis, Emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of El Obeid in Sudan, and John Ashworth, author and analyst on South Sudan who lived and worked in the region for many years. 

South Sudan has an estimated population of 12 million but given the absence of a census over several decades, this estimate may be severely distorted. The economy is predominantly rural and relies chiefly on subsistence farming. The region has also been negatively affected by two civil wars since Sudanese independence: the first from 1962 to 1972, and second from 1983 to 2005. As a result, the country suffered serious neglect, a lack of infrastructural development, and major destruction and displacement. After a long struggle, on July 9, 2011, South Sudan became its own country,  the 54th independent country in Africa. On July 14, 2011 it joined the United Nations as its 193rd member and that same year South Sudan became the 54th country to join the African Union (AU).

Bishop Macram began by addressing Sudan’s identity challenges. He especially highlighted the plight of the Nuba peoples who fall within his diocese. Nuba peoples are comprised of various indigenous groups who have inhabited mountainous areas of South Kordofan state for thousands of years. People who, as he explained, continue to experience  marginalization and ongoing aerial attacks by the government resulting in a humanitarian crisis. He asserted that the “cancer of Africa is tribalism.” He also believes the region has not been on the radar of the international community as much in recent time, despite ongoing human rights violations and violence. He said the government sometimes fuels ethnic divisions but there is also fighting among various groups due to long-standing conflicts. Meanwhile, children and women are always the first victims: many lack access to clean water, half of the country’s children are not in school and medical supplies and food donations from humanitarian groups are often stolen by armed groups, never reaching the intended populations. 

John Ashworth in his presentation spoke of ethnic fragmentation and U.S. intervention in the crisis.  He said with every change of U.S. administration comes a new policy approach toward the region, which can be a disadvantage. The country meanwhile is completely and slowly moving toward a deep fragmentation that seems to have increased since South Sudan gained its independence. These ethnic divisions, he said, make unity impossible and peacebuilding a challenge.

During the Q&A a question was asked about food donations and the safest way to get it to people in need. Both presenters acknowledged the difficulty. The conflict in South Sudan has displaced 3 million people in a country of 12 million. About 2 million are internally displaced and 1 million have fled to neighboring countries, mainly Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda.

Concluding the presentation Bishop Macram Max Gassi called for the appointment of a Bishop for South Sudan as one solution for building peace. But both speakers acknowledged that the humanitarian situation cannot wait: children, as well as adults, continue to die for lack of water, food and medical supplies.