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Barna rammes hardt i Sør-Sudan

Når landsbyer brennes ned og 170.000 har blitt hjemløse i konfliktområdet i Sør-Sudan, er det barna som blir hardest rammet, skriver Unni Krishnan, leder for Plans katastrofeberedskap og -respons. Fra Jonglei-regionen melder han om at barn kommer bort fra foreldrene, mister skoletilbudet og muligheten til å leke og være barn. Les Krishnans øyevitneskoldring fra området:

The evidence is on the ground. Dark patches of burnt ash and half burnt wooden stumps is all that is left in this village.

Well, there are thousands of people, many of them women and children, who are anxiously waiting in the hot sun. They have been waiting for the relief food.

Violent conflicts between different ethnic communities in Likuangole and other villages in the Jonglei state of South Sudan, has left an unconfirmed number of people dead and about 120,000 internally displaced people (many of them women and children) in desperate need of life saving assistance. These numbers have been increasing rapidly with fresh reports of violence. In an interagency meeting last week, aid workers said this could be as high as 250,000.

While the UN is still estimating the number of people dead, a wire agency quoted local authorities as saying the conflict has killed “as many as 2,000 people”.

This history of cattle raids and revenge attacks in the region goes back decades, and is now one of the greatest challenges to stability in the newly independent state. A legacy of mistrust with Khartoum and deepening disputes between two nations over oil revenues are adding to the current increased state of insecurity.

In Jonglei, what started as an inter-ethnic violence over cattle ownership - a source of livelihood and honour for locals- has now reached a flashpoint. And there seem to be no signs of end to hostilities.

Bloodshed over cattle is not new in Jonglei. The violence which started escalating dramatically in December has now reached a flashpoint.

I met several survivors at a food distribution centre set up by Plan International in Likuangole. Mothers expressed fears about the escalation of violence and what more damage it could do to them and their children.

“We lost everything”, said a mother. She looked exhausted and frightened. She had been hiding in the bushes with no food and water since she and her fellow villagers were displaced by the clashes.

When the mobs came marching to Likuangole on December 30, they spared nothing. All standing structures were reduced to ashes including the local primary school.

The UN estimates that over 33,000 people are displaced in just Likuangole alone. This number has been growing rapidly and local authorities say it is as high as 48,997.

Plan is currently distributing relief food to the conflict affected communities in Pibor- the only life line for over 54,500 people. Joining hands with the World Food Programme, UN’s food assistance organisation, Plan is expected to reach out to over 70,000 in the coming months.

In Gumuruk, a payam (sub-district) approximately 34 kilometres  away from Pibor centre, I met Paul (11 years) wearing a half-torn T shirt with Chelsea footballer Drogba’s photo on it. Paul and his friend Gabriel (14 years) are both Drogba fans and want to become football players like him when they grow up. Their eyes light up when they speak about football and Drogba.  

However, Gabriel told me he has stopped playing football - perhaps the only entertainment he and his friends had in this sub-centre. They used to play football on the unlevelled, muddy air strip which is just 200 metres away from the village. These days, rumours are rife about retaliation and revenge.

 A mob of 6000 reportedly marched through Gumuruk and other villages in Jonglei such as Likuangole a few days ago leaving a long trail of death and destruction - burning down houses, the government school and the only health clinic  which MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) was running. In Likuangole, the proof is in the ashes and dark patches on the ground. Entire village has been torched and wiped out and people brought to their knees. Gabriel and his friends do not want get caught up in clashes if the mob returns. Safety first, football can wait.

This is a neglected disaster. It is not really in the news. Friends in US and Europe express surprise that they have not seen anything in the news. Want to look up Pibor on the map of South Sudan? Not easy! If you were to walk into a book store in London or New York, there is every chance that you won’t find a map of South Sudan. The country gained independence recently.

Gaining access to the worst affected areas in Pibor is a big challenge. Journey takes hours. From Juba, the capital,  we took 2 helicopters and several hours (spread over 2 days) to reach Pibor. For the return journey, we had to charter a plane.

Bor, which has a functional airstrip, is 150 kilometres from Pibor. The stretch of land which everyone calls road winds its way like a snake. Trucks are moving in convoys. Travel for aid workers by road is not encouraged. The operational costs for relief work is very high.

There are other challenges for delivering aid in Pibor. The average day temperature is soaring to 40 degrees Celsius. There is no running water, electricity is ration- 3 hours a day using a generator, no internet and very poor mobile connectivity. One small cafe is the only “restaurant”.

In Likuangole, Thangko (37 years) is a real hero. In between his busy schedule of overseeing food distribution to thousands in the food distribution centre, he took time to share his story with me. He was with his wife and 6 children in Pibor when the violence broke out. His wife and six children , along with other members of their extended family, ran for their lives to relative safety and got separated from Thangko.

Tango didn’t have the heart to abandon Pibor where mobs had terrorised thousands to flee. Later, he joined couple of his friends and they started a long and anxious search for their families. They went looking for them everywhere in the bushes and kept walking without any clue. They survived on Lalop (a local fruit) and stagnant dirty water. After 3 anxious days, they met a few villagers who were coming back from a place 40 kilometres away from Pibor. The villagers said that they spotted Gabriels’ children there. Thangko finally found them the next day and brought them back to Pibor.

Thangko has been working as a food monitor for Plan, based in Pibor before the violence. Currently he is the point man overseeing Plan’s food aid in Likuangole.

Violent conflicts take a heavy toll on children. Firstly, children are disproportionately affected. They get separated from their families, lose their education and childhood. Violence has a lasting traumatising effect on children as they suffer both as victims and as witnesses. In many violent conflicts, many children are recruited to militias and often become perpetuators of violence in future. Last week, Juba Monitor, a weekly newspaper in capital Juba carried photographs of children aged around 12 years, heavily armed.

Dealing with conflicts is time consuming and involves money and people. While some agencies take up consequences of conflicts in their strategies and programmes, many shy away from taking programmes that address the causes and dynamics of the conflict.

If children are sometimes the worst victims, children are also a good place to start addressing conflicts and their fallout.

Children in Jonglei are desperately in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance like food, water and shelter. Secondly they need protection, support to continue education. Thirdly they need support to heal the emotional impacts of this violence.

Most importantly, they need assurance that the violence will be stopped and peace is returned.

Republic of South Sudan is the youngest nation in the world. The world has a collective responsibility to help South Sudan to ensure that its children grow up in peace and good health and education. Putting children and peace at the centre is key to make that happen.

Photo: Intercommunal violence in Pibor County, Jonglei State, has left thousands of people displaced and many wounded. Around 120,000 people have been displaced by the violence, most of those affected by the conflict are women, children and elderly people.
“I will stay at home and play with my friends when I want to because our school has no roof. Nuer burned it. But if our teacher calls us to study under the tree, I will come. I want to go to class two this year and learn new things,” said a ten-year-old John Kukur from Likuangole. John was in class one. “I am not sure if I was promoted to class two. We did not see our results,” he said. His school, Likuangole primary, remains roofless after Lou Nuer raiders burned it late December.

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