By Okech Francis
Ululations of joy rang across South Sudan when President Salva Kiir and rebel leader turned First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar signed an accord in 2018, to finally end a bitter crisis that sent the country on its knees.
That was a second pact since fighting broke out in the oil-rich country five years earlier, leaving 400,000 people dead, displacing 4 million others and leading to economic ruin.
The first agreement between the two men in 2015 ended just three months into implementation with heavy fighting in the capital Juba between government forces and those of Machar leading to him fleeing South Sudan on foot to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The peace agreement looked a real deal and I never expected to see fellow South Sudanese being killed unnecessarily again,” businesswoman Sarah Keji, said in an interview in Juba.
“It’s pitiful to see our people continuing to be killed by outlaws with impunity,” the mother of 3 said.
Intercommunal violence has continued to rob South Sudanese communities of that peace and security that the implementation of the peace deal in Juba was meant to provide.
The government and the SPLM-IO have respected the deal but delays in implementing some provisions, including the security arrangement and the slow pace of formation of the State governments have been blamed for continuous insecurity in the countryside.
The violence though localized to a relatively small number of payams and counties across the country, “is creating a lot of havoc, a lot of death” in those places, David Shearer, the former UNMISS boss said before leaving the country.
“Some of the inter-communal violence we are seeing is a direct result of the fact that there was a gap – a vacuum of power at the local level – that allowed various groups to take advantage,” Shearer said.
“It’s important that the peace process moves on and maintains its momentum.”
After the peace implementation began early last year, the countryside rocked with ethnic groups, armed to the teeth, attacking each other, killing, pillaging and abducting people including women and children.
During the first quarter of the year, it was the main source of violence affecting civilians, resulting in 658 people killed, 452 injured and 65 subjected to sexual violence.
By August, as many as 686 women and children were abducted during “extreme violence” between the communities in Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Areas alone, according to the UN Mission in the country.
“Tragically, the abductions often involve sexual violence,” the UN said in a statement recently, one feature that has left women bear the greatest brunt of the six years of crisis, and was meant to be addressed by the peace pact.
The implementation of the country’s accord will run till 2023 and usher South Sudan into a democratic era through elections.
It is also meant to provide space for increasing production of crude oil and economic activities including agriculture and trade.
For now, the roads are just a death trap.
Ambushes in recent weeks have left scores dead on the highways, while farmers and cattle keepers are still holed up in displacement, fearing attacks and counter retributions.
Five drivers were killed on the thoroughfare leading from Juba to East Africa through Nimule border town. Ten other people including drivers and passengers died when ambushed at Lainya in Central Equatoria on the Juba-Yei road.
Military confrontations between the National Salvation Forces loyal to former Deputy Army Chief, General Thomas Cirillo and the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces in Yei area are leading to deaths and mass displacements.
The dissident group is holding talks with the government under the auspices of the Rome Based Sant’Egidio religious group but ceasefire signed between them have not ended the sound of guns.
Donor communities, faced by the COVID-19 pandemic are no longer focusing on funding an unending crisis.
The United Nations World Food Program announced on April 8 that its cutting food rations for refugees and internally displaced people in the country due to “significant funding gaps.”
According to the UN agency, the cut will affect nearly 700,000 refugees and internally displaced people who will be receiving 50 percent of a full ration, down from 70 percent.
Ulang residents receive food aid from WFP
Resources in the country are stretched thin at a time when levels of food insecurity are at their highest and donors are grappling with the economic impact of COVID-19, WFP said.
Taking from the hungry to give to the starving is a very painful decision yet “this is the reality because of the alarming rise of food insecurity in remote locations,” Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Country Director in South Sudan said.
While it will not lead to a breakdown of the peace agreement, the intercommunal violence will continue to destabilize the communities’ livelihood, the Dean of the College of Social Science and Economics at the University of Juba, Abraham Kuol Nyuon, said.
“It will lead to anarchy and this nature of anarchy could be able to affect the government, it could lead to nationwide unrest and it could lead to lawlessness and there could be no way the government could maintain peace and security,” Nyuon said.
For that, Keji who sells fruits in Gudele 1, on the outskirt of Juba, believes the peace deal is not translating into the lives of people.
“It’s just hollow,” she said.
