South Sudan: The People the Gods Forgot (An Eyewitness Odyssey) SouthSouthSouth SudanSudanSudan The People the Gods Forgot (An Eyewitness Odyssey in Western Upper Nile) “Our Future is Dying in Front of Our Eyes — as We Look at the Children Dying of Hunger, Diseases and War . .” A Nuer Elder, Mr. Kuol Beliew, in the Majok Amal displaced persons’ cattle camp of Toy Payam, Mayom County (July 27, 2002, Western Upper Nile Province) Report for Norwegian People’s Aid (Sudan Programme) by John Gachie 1 South Sudan: The People the Gods Forgot (An Eyewitness Odyssey) Food arrives in Leel, Western Upper Nile “The history and nature of the Sudan Conflict demonstrates that a military solution cannot bring lasting peace and stability to the country” The IGAD Declaration of Principles A Nuer woman in Tam, Western Upper Nile Preparing lunch in Wicok 2 South Sudan: The People the Gods Forgot (An Eyewitness Odyssey) Introduction struggle is against the murderous military and its militia offshoots of For the people of Western Upper Nile State, or Unity State to one of the most relentlessly brutal the Government of Sudan, life is nasty, brutish and short. It is a The scale of the regimes on the face of the earth, the life of fear, despair and terror. Survival is at the very edge of violence in Khartoum Government. human endurance with no way out of a vicious cycle of hunger, Western Upper horror and death. At the worst of times, their fate hangs Nile is shocking, by a thread as anxiety stalks, fear and widespread and The terrible staple of their existence is compounded by a grand horror reign and death lurks at ev- conspiracy of natural and man-made elements, all apparently shows little ery corner. There are many reasons in some demented competition to draw most blood from an signs of abating why the people of Western Upper Nile anaemic people shorn of all vestiges of human dignity. are forever at their wits’ end, but the At the best of times, their lives are miserable as they struggle most direct and vicious is death with natural elements for the most basic hand-to-mouth sur- wrought on the grand scale by decades of violence in a seem- vival. But, over time, they have learned to endure and, occa- ingly never-ending conflict. sionally, even to come to terms with their Hobbesian existence. As the conflict rages, torture, hunger, rape and displacement They have devised survival mechanisms that make life some- are routine. So too are food shortages and disease epidemics. what bearable, if not sustainable and dignified. Their fate is also compounded by looting, theft of livestock and On the one hand, they have to struggle against a hostile natu- the ever-present prospect of aerial bombing by the Sudan ral environment-floods, swamps, poor soils, and high tempera- Government’s planes and helicopter gun-ships. tures that saps energy in an instant. On the other hand, their The perpetrators of these acts of violence are armed militia groups on both sides of the conflict, the pro-government mili- tia, the anti-government militia allied to the Sudan People’s Lib- eration Army/Movement (SPLA/M) and militia groups controlled by individual warlords whose alliance or loyalty to either of the two warring sides is tenuous and suspect at all times. The scale of the violence in Western Upper Nile is shocking, widespread and shows little signs of abating. On the contrary, all indications are that it will escalate with all its attendant hor- ror and ever heavier toll. In short, the nightmare of Western Upper Nile continues inexorably, decimating all in its path — man, beast, the built environment, flora and fauna. The people of Western Upper Nile, the young, the old, the dis- placed, the weak, the poor and the marginalized are the great- est victims of this madness. And their livestock have fared no better. Indeed, the animals from oxen to dogs, cats and poultry have come to recognize all the signs of the beginnings of an air raid as well as the whine of bombshells and mortar fire and flee in all directions split seconds before the humans have reacted. It is a gut-wrenching scenario. Gathering up the grains The crops wither away in the fields unattended, the houses and other property burnt-down and looted by the pro-Khartoum 3 South Sudan: The People the Gods Forgot (An Eyewitness Odyssey) militia, one of the most sadistic storm-trooper forces in recent years. This truly evil juggernaut seems to have an insatiable appetite for death, destruction and misery. One can only wonder what their orders are and how they are debriefed after every murder-and-mayhem operation. Compounding the woes of the people of West- ern Upper Nile is the truly diabolical fact that access to the area by humanitarian agencies has been woefully restricted and, even when possible, is largely ineffectual, all too often a case of too little, too late. This applies to both United Na- Relief food in Wicok, Western Upper Nile tions and affiliated agencies under the auspices of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) and relief agencies outside the OLS ambit. The effect of this restricted access for the relief agencies has bution of relief supplies, both food and non-food items, more been devastation and catastrophe for the long-suffering people popularly known as “food rotations” in the trade. As the name of Western Upper Nile. The sum implies, this type of operation takes place from a central posi- The people of total effect of this cocktail of woes tion serving as a forward operation base. The primary mode of Western Upper is utter destruction of a people’s delivery is air-freighting for a number of practical, logistical and Nile, the young, way of life under the most adverse security concerns. conditions, culminating in an atmo- the old, the These concerns range from the poor state of earth tracks that sphere of raw fear and horror not displaced, the serve as roads in the South, the distances involved, usually experienced elsewhere in the weak, the poor over 500km, the terrain and, most importantly, insecurity in the Sudan despite four decades of war, region. and the and very rarely in the outside marginalized are world. The field of work of this report took place between July 11-30, the greatest 2002, and was conducted in more than six administrative Lo- This report is divided into three victims of this cations in Western Upper Nile Province where the displaced parts, namely a general thematic madness have sought refuge. Most of these locations had not received outline of the Province, firsthand any emergency relief supplies from any NGO, with the exception eye-witness accounts and second- of Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA). ary information from actors in the region. These three broad categories also include, where ap- This first phase also includes interviews with the local leader- propriate, personal observations, analysis and projections. ship, both civil and community, the internally displaced (espe- cially older women and men), local non-governmental staff drawn This report is a departure from past reports in that it revolves from the SPLA/M-affiliated relief agency, Sudan Relief and Re- around a number of actors — more appropriately victims — habilitation (SRRA), Sudan Church Aid (SCA) and Norwegian that the writer met during the research period in the Province. People’s Aid Emergency Relief Field Staff and Headquarter Staff. The ground research took place over a one-month period bro- ken into two parts. The first period was between May 16 and In writing this report, the Writer was most gratified to receive May 30, and the second between July 9 and August 2, 2002. support and assistance from a great variety of people directly and indirectly involved in South Sudan. Their support ranged The first phase was devoted to witnessing the logistical distri- from logistics to counsel, advice and insights. Others provided 4 South Sudan: The People the Gods Forgot (An Eyewitness Odyssey) security and other back-up services. On the ground in South centred around peace-building initiatives, re-settlement of refu- Sudan, all those who poured their hearts out to the writer and gees and of internally-displaced persons. told the heart-rending stories of their basic survival in one of In the Horn of Africa, currently experiencing conflict and war, the world’s most atrocious killing fields. Many of them shall NPA’s range of interventions is multiple, complex and fluid. These remain unnamed, for obvious reasons. Included in this category interventions are emergency, both short-term and long-term, are NPA Field Staff in South Sudan who were always co-opera- encompassing relief operations, medical evacuations and nu- tive and ever ready to share a smile. They are the unsung tritional feeding in southern Sudan, especially in Western Upper heroes of the relief operations. Nile Province and some parts of Bar-el-Ghazal Province. But there are those who must be named for their special input into the compilation of this report; Mr Sten-Rino Bonsaksen, the out-going Norwegian Peoples Aid Resident Representative for Sudan for commissioning this report, Mr Dan Eiffe, former Liaison Officer with Norwegian Peoples Aid and Mr Ken Miller, the Programmes Coordinator, Norwegian People’s Aid for their able and efficient collaboration, before, during and immedi- ately after the compilation of this report. All three are South Sudan emergency relief operations veterans. Unless where otherwise attributed or acknowledged, the views, observations, comments and inferences in the following report are entirely the Writer’s. NPA’s Role and Gone before the gun-ships come Interventions in Africa Other NPA activities in South Sudan include creating food secu- rity capacities in SPLA/M- controlled areas through better food Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) is an international non-govern- production methods and the provision of veterinary services.