Monday,
December 23, 2013
Folks, by now, you must have
heard of the turmoil in South Sudan, the world’s newest country and Africa’s 55th.
It all began sometime before July
this year when in-fighting within the ranks of the SPLM government exploded
with President Salva Kiir dismissing his Vice (Riek Machar) and the entire
Cabinet in the hope that his authority as the head of state would stay intact.
Nothing seemed to have happened immediately thereafter to endanger his
government, the country, and the citizens, even though the under-current was
strongly being felt that the country was sitting on a time-bomb.
Already, the tension arising from
disputes with Al-Bashir’s Sudan over many critical issues, especially the
petroleum industry, had strained nerves and sparked off some skirmishes.
Just when the relations with
Sudan were being smoothed, BOOOOOOOOM!! Trouble in South Sudan as fighting
broke out last week in the national capital city (Juba), which President Kiir quickly blamed on his
former Vice, accusing him of attempting a coup.
Since then, the situation has
assumed ugly dimensions, not only deteriorating but also shifting very fast to
the possibility of a civil war.
The country is fast tearing apart
and likely to be engulfed by a civil war as the two ethnic groups—the Dinka and
Nuer—whose members constitute the government (or whatever is left of it) pit
their strengths against each other and dig in.
President Kiir,
a member of the majority Dinka ethnic group, sacked Mr. Machar, who is from the
Nuer community, in July.
The violence
which broke out in Juba last weekend has since spread, pitting gangs of Nuer
and Dinka against each other, according to the BBC.
What began as a
dissident action (two versions coming from the government and its opponents,
respectively) is now a major national catastrophe that will likely engulf the
entire region.
Here is the frightening scenario
that is emerging:
“I was buying
some things for my children in the market on Tuesday when I saw two people
dressed in normal civilian clothes shot dead in front of me by people in
military clothing.
“I don't know if
they were the army or rebels. I didn't wait to see”—Mogga Lado, a resident of
Juba, told the BBC).
As the UN Humanitarian Coordinator
(Toby Lanzer) has put it, there is definitely an
atmosphere of fear and
desperation as violence escalates.
He
told the BBC about summary executions in Bor, in the restive state of Jonglei
that has fallen to rebels. In addition to Jonglei, the rebels now control
Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity State. South Sudan’s economy depends on
oil production in Bentiu, with 95% of its total revenue coming from there.
So, folks, right in front of our
eyes, South Sudan is collapsing, not because it cannot stand on its own as an
independent country, but because those entrusted with management of affairs are
fighting for power.
We note the long and tortuous
history behind this new country and the bitter struggle waged by Col. John Garang
and his Sudanese people’s Liberation Army (SPLA) before his own death and the
circumstances leading to the Moslem-dominated Sudan’s agreeing to grant
independence to the mostly animist and Christian south.
Regardless of the negative impact
of Sudan’s grips on that part of the country, the reality is that the fighting
going on now could have been prevented had the main characters acted properly
to put nation above personal whims and capricious desire for power. It is not
as if that power will be used to benefit the people. It hasn’t been so in
Africa all these years!
So, now, the international
community is looking on as South Sudan cracks. The US has already taken the
first step to evacuate its citizens from there. China has also moved to ensure
its citizens’ safety and security. All others that have interests in the area
are taking prompt action to secure them.
Two Indian soldiers have died in
the crisis while four US service personnel on the evacuation mission were
injured by gun fire from sources not yet confirmed as rebels or pro-government.
On
Sunday, the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it had begun relocating
staff from the capital Juba to the Ugandan city of Entebbe. Its precincts had
already been sheltering thousands of citizens fleeing from the escalating
violence. Even then, there are reports of some of the refugees being killed
there.
Now,
here is the catch. In less than two years of becoming an independent country,
South Sudan is already unstable. With Machar’s forces rampaging and doing all
they can to assert the rebels’ crave for power and the government forces’
determination to crack down on them, will we have peace and stability there
soon?
Mediation
efforts are in progress but there seems to be no common ground. Mr. Machar told the BBC on Saturday that
he was prepared to negotiate with the government if politicians arrested this
week were released and transferred to a neutral country such as Ethiopia. Mr.
Kiir had also agreed to negotiations after meeting African mediators on Friday.
Or will we have
the country broken into two to give us South Sudan and South-South Sudan? It is
regrettable that the country should be falling to its knees so soon. No doubt,
another failed African experiment in self-governance.
The mediation
going on will achieve very little because it will be exceedingly difficult for
the bitter enemies to sink their differences and agree to work as a team. Will
President Kiir restore Mr. Machar and the dismissed Cabinet members to their
former status? With what consequences?
And now that Mr.
Machar is assured of his forces’ ability to over-run the government forces,
will he rein them in? With what implications for his own political ambitions?
Definitely, the
stage is set for a damaging implosion that will further worsen the plight of
the millions of citizens who have stood by destitute and hopeless while their
country’s resources become the bone of contention between greedy, hard-hearted,
and politically ambitious marauding gangsters abusing their trust to achieve
the self-aggrandizement that politics in Africa offers them.
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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