SOUTH SUDAN’S PROSPECTS FOR PEACE AND SECURITY HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION APRIL 27, 2016 Serial No. 114–208 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 99–948PDF WASHINGTON : 2016 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:33 Sep 22, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\_AGH\042716\99948 SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida TED POE, Texas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York MATT SALMON, Arizona KAREN BASS, California DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ALAN GRAYSON, Florida MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California PAUL COOK, California ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas GRACE MENG, New York SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania LOIS FRANKEL, Florida RON DESANTIS, Florida TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas TED S. YOHO, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois CURT CLAWSON, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan LEE M. ZELDIN, New York DANIEL DONOVAN, New York AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina KAREN BASS, California CURT CLAWSON, Florida DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee AMI BERA, California DANIEL DONOVAN, New York (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:33 Sep 22, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_AGH\042716\99948 SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Donald Booth, Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, U.S. Department of State .................................................................................... 6 Mr. Bob Leavitt, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International De- velopment .............................................................................................................. 18 Mr. John Prendergast, founding director, Enough Project .................................. 41 Mr. Matt Wells, program officer, Center for Civilians in Conflict ....................... 53 Luka Biong Deng Kuol, Ph.D., global fellow, Peace Research Institute Oslo .... 64 Augustino Ting Mayai, Ph.D., director of research, The Sudd Institute ............ 86 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Donald Booth: Prepared statement .............................................. 9 Mr. Bob Leavitt: Prepared statement .................................................................... 20 Mr. John Prendergast: Prepared statement .......................................................... 44 Mr. Matt Wells: Prepared statement ..................................................................... 56 Luka Biong Deng Kuol, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ............................................. 67 APPENDIX Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 100 Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 101 Mr. John Prendergast: Information on the Frontier Security Group .................. 102 (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:33 Sep 22, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_AGH\042716\99948 SHIRL VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:33 Sep 22, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_AGH\042716\99948 SHIRL SOUTH SUDAN’S PROSPECTS FOR PEACE AND SECURITY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:02 p.m., in room 2200 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. SMITH. And good afternoon to everybody and thank you for being here. On July 9, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan became the world’s newest nation. In a referendum held in January of that year, near- ly 99 percent of the population voted to become independent from the Republic of Sudan. Although there are those who felt the South Sudanese were not prepared for independence, the people of that country believed otherwise and rejoiced in severing their ties to the regime in Khartoum after many years of war and efforts to under- mine the South. Unfortunately, the people’s rejoicing was short-lived. The lack of infrastructure and transparent governance frustrated any hope of progress for this fledgling nation. Despite significant arable land, agricultural production did not increase largely due to a lack of transportation and power infrastructure needed which also pre- vented significant mining or manufacturing operations. Nearly 5 years after independence, South Sudan remains heavily dependent on its oil production which represents as much as 98 percent of its revenue. As the price of oil has fallen worldwide, South Sudan became the producer earning the least from each bar- rel of oil, estimated between $9 and $12 a barrel. Although an in- crease in agricultural would have helped bridge the gap, the dis- placement of so many farmers, the continued insecurity, and the recent spread of violence to the agricultural heartland prevents any benefits agriculture could have provided. Consequently, South Sudan has projected that a negative growth rate this year of nearly 8 percent. More than 2.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict just since December 2013; 706,600 of them are now refugees in neighboring Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya. United Nations officials estimate that more 6 million people need humanitarian aid (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:33 Sep 22, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\042716\99948 SHIRL 2 and nearly a quarter of the country’s population, or 2.8 million, are facing life-threatening hunger. Bob Leavitt, Deputy Assistant Administrator for USAID will tes- tify today that ‘‘half of all Sudanese—meaning 6.1 million people— are in need of humanitarian assistance or protection this year.’’ And, ‘‘Over half of all children aged 6 to 15—or 1.8 million chil- dren—are not in school in South Sudan, the highest proportion in any country.’’ Efforts to address the needs of the South Sudanese people have been blocked by various fighting forces—at least 52 relief workers have been killed since the civil war began—and according to United Nations there are numerous reports of harassment, threats and active hostility toward aid workers. Apparently, targeted at- tacks to prevent aid from reaching certain communities have meant that far too many people in need of help cannot be helped even in U.N. compounds which have also come under attack. Greg Simpkins and I were scheduled to visit South Sudan on a trip that unfortunately coincided with the eruption of the violence in December 2013, so that trip was cancelled at the request of the State Department. But for more than 20 months since, fighting be- tween forces led by Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar continued without stoppage despite several ceasefire agree- ments. In fact, the targeting of populations and oil facilities became worse the closer the signing of a final agreement came as both sides competed for territory before agreeing to halt hostilities. Unspeakable human rights violations have occurred as docu- mented by the African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan, and U.N. reports have corroborated that. The interethnic violence, Dinka-Nuer conflict, has now devolved into interethnic animosity involving clans within larger ethnic groups. Matt Wells of the Center for Civilians in Conflict includes a very touching and sad, tragic interview with Rebecca, a 29-year-old vic- tim who lost her husband. She says in part, ‘‘[t]he government sol- diers came in and were looking for Nuers; they killed all the Nuers they found. When the [armed opposition] attacked, they killed the Dinkas and other tribes . [o]ur dead relatives will never come back. But we need to know [those responsible]. Then we can decide to forgive them or send them to prison. I want to know why they killed innocent civilians, why did they kill our children,’’ she says. ‘‘The government must recognize our suffering [and] rebuild our homes. Once [our homes are rebuilt,] our children [are back in] school, we have medicine, and the guns have stopped banging in my head, I will have [what I need.]’’