South Sudanese in Minnesota ask for U.S. intervention in country's fighting

In her home country of South Sudan, that would put her in terrible danger. But James, who has lived in the United States since 1999, said her anger at the deaths of so many in her homeland motivated her to burn a hat similar to one worn by South Sudan President Salva Kiir Myardit.

Kiir, as he is traditionally known, has been president since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan to the north in 2011.

“There is a conflict between Sudan and South Sudan because of a region that has oil and each one wants to claim it,” said Paschal Kyiiripuo Kyoore, director of African Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College. “But it’s also about ethnic conflict among South Sudanese people, when one ethnic group believes the government is favoring the other one in some ways.”

South Sudan proclaimed independence from Sudan in 2011, after decades of fighting and a peace process that began in 2005. The U.S. had an integral role in that process. The U.S. took South Sudanese refugees, which brought James and Mankato resident Peter Jal Ngor to the U.S.

A photograph of James burning the cowboy hat went viral among the South Sudanese diaspora and those who remain in the country. On Facebook, she said it drew support and condemnation from those who support Kiir.

“They’re complaining about how I burned a hat when the president is burning people alive,” she said.

Ngor said whether a person in South Sudan lives in a UN-protected camp or outside, there is no free speech.

“If you say something bad against the government, you may be dead,” he said.

Tens of thousands of people in South Sudan have died in a civil war that started in 2013. It started when Kiir asserted his Vice President Riek Machar had tried to unseat him in a coup d’etat. In 2015, African Union investigators were told of terrible atrocities by government forces, including mass rapes, people being burned alive and forced cannibalism.

At first, both had supporters from several ethnic groups, various reports say. But rebel groups became predominantly non-Dinka groups, while the president’s staunchest support remains among the Dinka, the largest ethnic group in South Sudan.

James is an ethnic Nuer, which is the second-largest ethnic group and counts Machar among its members.

But James said the suffering is “not just my tribe,” but all the people of South Sudan. James was born near the border with Ethiopia. Some of her relatives, including her father, remain in South Sudan. She supports him financially.

“Now, it’s too much,” she said. There’s rampant inflation and basic supplies, including food, have become very expensive. “He wants to stay there with his people.”

She said he’s 15 minutes from a refugee camp. People come to her father for help and he always gives what he can.

James now lives in Burnsville. There are several thousand South Sudanese in Minnesota, primarily Nuer. About 400 came as refugees in the 1990s. Ngor estimates there are about 1,000 South Sudanese people in the Mankato area.

James’ friend Didit Luak said if she had been in South Sudan when she burned the hat, which is universally recognized there as synonymous with the president, she would be killed or jailed for a long time.

“The president’s supporters said she crossed a red line,” he said. A newspaper article on her Facebook post was published in one of the region’s Arabic newspapers.

The South Sudanese friends said Kiir needs to be replaced, preferably by Machar.

“We just want the world to understand that Kiir is not a president anymore,” Luak said.

Friend James Khat, who now lives in St. Cloud, came to the U.S. in 2000 and returned for four years to help build South Sudan. But he left after a colleague was killed in front of him and friends; even those who were U.S. citizens, were killed, he said.

“We need that system to be changed,” he said. “We hope the government of the U.S. will hear.”

Ngor said simply changing the man at the top of the country’s government is not the solution. Under the constitution initially approved by the country, all political appointments are made by the president. Early in this conflict, he divided up the original 10 states to make 28, then appointed allies to control them, who went to the states and started inflicting the violence.

He said, like in the U.S., residents of states should be empowered to elect governors. An elected legislative body would also be helpful to create a balance of power with the president.

Multiple ceasefire agreements have been made and broken.

Both rebel and government soldiers have attacked aid workers and stolen food. But the South Sudanese government has taken an active role in preventing humanitarian aid from reaching people. It has also recruited child soldiers — about 17,000 since 2013 — as young as 9.

There are more than 1 million refugees from the conflict with perhaps 2 million more internally displaced; the refugees have fled to neighboring Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. The suffering of the people has been deepened by inability to farm over years of the civil war. The United Nations made a formal famine declaration^[1] in February for north-central South Sudan. Now at least 5.5 million people there face starvation; more than 1 million children are malnourished.

“There are no crops,” Luak said. “There is no time to do it. People are running for their lives.”

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley visited a refugee camp in the capital Juba, where the U.N. protects 30,000 refugees. She said in a U.N. statement that the U.S. does not trust Kiir’s government to make South Sudan the free and fair society that was promised. The U.S. had been one of the biggest benefactors for the fledgling country. Haley promised the U.S. would not forget the South Sudanese.

Kiir was planning a peace summit for Dec. 15 and 16, but did not invite Machar, Ngor said, so it will not be effective. He said the U.S. must put pressure on the government to have a true two-party peace process with international monitors that leads to a new constitution and a new leader.

“After a peace agreement and an election on a new constitution, that will make reconciliation,” he said.

James, watching from afar, said her act of political protest was an effort to remind the U.S.

“The message is that we are dying,” she said. “Suffering is still going on. Later on, it will be too late.”