The Unheard Voices of South Sudan: How The International Community Can
Help Bring Peace
Posted by Enough Team on Jul 28, 2016
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IDPs in Juba. July 2016.
Note: This post was written by Enough Project Intern Reed Shafer-Ray.
This week, Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan and the leader of
the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), swore in Taban Deng Gai
as first vice president, replacing former Vice President Riek Machar.
The move was denounced by Machar’s followers, and the Enough Project
characterized Kiir’s action as a consolidation of power in violation
of the peace agreement signed in August of last year.
The backdrop to Taban Deng Gai’s appointment is violence that broke
out on July 8th, on the eve of South Sudan’s fifth independence
anniversary. More than 300 people were killed amidst explosions and
heavy gunfire as government tanks rolled through the streets. The
conflict, which came to a head while the country should have been
celebrating its nascent nationhood, did not surprise keen observers of
South Sudanese affairs. According to the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees, civil unrest and persistent violence caused by political
rivalries over the last three years has led to the displacement of
nearly one in four South Sudanese citizens, and it is possible that
there will be over 1 million total refugees by the end of the year.
Prior to the onset of violence on July 8th, the SPLM and the SPLM in
Opposition (SPLM-IO) grew further apart as the implementation of a
peace agreement signed in August 2015 stalled. Worried by this
development, international mediators have suggested the deployment of
regional peacekeepers to stave off a second civil war. The African
Union (AU) called for a supplemental force to bolster the UN’s
peacekeeping mission in South Sudan while the east African regional
administrative body Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
demanded that the armies of the SPLM and SPLM-IO leave the capital
Juba to be replaced by a regional protection force. Meanwhile, some
prominent American policymakers have proposed that the AU and UN
dissolve the current government and temporarily administer the
country. However, Kiir’s government opposes foreign intervention; an
SPLM army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang recently declared that “any
deployment of a foreign force that is not authorized by the political
leadership is going to be resisted.”
Many civil society organizations, however, support the presence of a
third force, envisaged to be a buffer between government forces and
those of the opposition. The South Sudan Human Rights Society For
Advocacy (SSHURSA), along with four other local humanitarian groups,
publicly support intervention, stating that: “Our people yearn for
peace but our leaders have failed them, and the recent violence in
Juba clearly communicates a message of a failed leadership and
determination to destroy the Peace Agreement which the parties
signed.” SSHURSA congratulated the AU and IGAD for their support of a
“third deterrent force” to stabilize the situation, and urged its
rapid deployment.
Further, the South Sudan Peace and Reconciliation Commission, a
government-sanctioned committee to oversee peacebuilding within the
country, asked external actors for help with crisis-management: “We
would like to call upon the international community to come into [sic]
the intervention of the people of Juba town because after this crisis,
people lost a lot of property, food and other items.”
Although recent protests, at least some of which have been organized
by President Kiir’s government, have voiced opposition to the proposed
foreign intervention, these actions have been critiqued by civil
society actors. Edmund Yakani, the executive director of Community
Empowerment for Progress Organization, criticized the demonstrations,
saying that those who are protesting do not fully understand the AU
proposal and its intentions to stabilize and bring peace to the
nation. The chairperson of the civil society organization network in
Lakes State (a location of one large protest) opposed military
intervention, but encouraged the international community to continue
aiding in implementing the 2015 peace agreement.
South Sudanese displaced persons, on the other hand, have accused
these civil society groups that oppose military intervention as
detractors whose actions are not in the public interest. According to
interviews conducted by the South Sudanese news outlet Radio Tamazuj,
displaced people living in camps in Bor, Juba, and Malakal support the
additional military deployment because, in the words of displaced
person Zacharia John Tut, “We need peace because we [have been] in the
displacement camp for more than two years.” Tut suggested that those
protesting against intervention “do not represent the people of South
Sudan but [rather] the government in Juba.”
Taban Deng Gai’s appointment risks widening the schisms between the
government and Machar and creates the potential for another renewed
large-scale civil war. The international community, local civil
society, and the South Sudanese people desire peace and prosperity for
the fledgling nation, but without a demonstrated commitment to the
2015 peace agreement, the South Sudan government risks plunging the
country back into chaos.
Sudan and South Sudan
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