South Sudan needs help to avoid civil war

Zahra Hussein sells groceries in a market in Wedweil refugee camp, in South Sudan (David Macharia/Christian Aid)

 

IT HAS been two years since Sudan slid into a brutal power struggle between the army and its former ally, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) (News, 21 April 2023). Despite its size and savagery, blink and you might miss it, as the world’s media remain mesmerised by an unpredictable White House.

Sudanese people have suffered on a scale that is almost impossible to take in. It is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. More than 12.5 million people have been forced from their homes. Some estimates suggest that up to 150,000 people have been killed so far in the conflict.

The ensuing chaos has spilled into neighbouring countries such as South Sudan, where I live. Over the past year, almost a million refugees and returnees have crossed the border to escape horrific war crimes: violence and rape.

Neither are they escaping into a land of peace and stability. Resources are stretched, as South Sudan grapples with longstanding challenges such as floods and droughts from climate change, and our own fragile peace process.

Those crossing from the north have added a crisis on top of the existing crises. Nine million people here need humanitarian assistance: three-quarters of South Sudan’s population.

Christian Aid and its partners there are doing what they can to support this huge influx from Sudan by providing cash, emergency supplies, and access to water and sanitation for more than 100,000 people.

BUT even these attempts at relief may be short-lived. Fears are growing that South Sudan may follow Sudan and topple into civil war; and 400,000 people died over five years in the last one. Ominous signs are there for a renewed conflict.

Late last year, in Juba, there was an outbreak of violence between the President’s military forces and armed groups connected to the former head of the National Security Agency. The country’s first ever elections keep on being postponed. Tensions escalated in February. An unelected Reconstituted Transitional National Assembly was not called back from recess to discuss this.

Now, the country’s First Vice-President, Riek Machar, is under house arrest. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir accused Machar of stirring up a new revolt. Last month, the US ordered all of its non-emergency staff in South Sudan to leave, as fighting broke out in one part of the country.

Just last month, a UN helicopter was shot down, with the loss of a crew member, and an armed-forces general and several other troops were killed during an evacuation attempt, allegedly by groups allied to the Vice-President. Uganda has sent its army to support the President, and air strikes on civilian areas and opposition compounds in four states are now nearing the capital.

South Sudan might be on the brink, but this is not a doctrine of despair. The country can pull back.

Christian Aid does not provide only humanitarian support: we are in the business of hope, working hand in hand with local activists, such as the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC), to help the country’s government to establish and implement the 2018 peace agreement.

Respected church leaders are playing a vital part in building trust and confidence: brokering peace deals at local level, undertaking shuttle diplomacy in South Sudanese states, and talking to armed groups to urge them to get behind the peace agreement, and to the President and Vice-President to urge them return to honouring their agreement. The newly elected head of SSCC, the Revd Tut Kony Nyang Kon, said that their purpose was to unite the country around a unity of purpose.

He said that leaders in South Sudan needed to present a reinvigorated plan for free and fair elections in two years to reassure people, rally the peacemakers, and deter those who might see an opportunity to undermine the peace gains made so far.

BUT they need diplomatic support, too. The UK, with the United States and Norway, is part of the influential “Troika”, which should make a serious diplomatic investment in the national and international peace processes to ensure that the 2018 existing peace agreement holds and to deter other states from providing financial or military support that can fuel conflict and violence.

The UK Government needs to show that it meant what it said when it promised the UN Security Council, last November, that it would champion the protection of civilians and double aid for those fleeing the conflict in Sudan.

Alongside this, the UK should lead the way in bridging the funding gap for South Sudan. It needs to put its full weight into bringing the parties back to the peace agreement, and help to ensure that international diplomacy is rapid, collective, and joined-up between the Troika, the Africa Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and across states in the region.

This year should be a leadership moment for the UK and the international community to increase support for the region, and to get behind South Sudan’s peacemakers, to avoid another catastrophic conflict in Africa.

James Wani is Christian Aid’s South Sudan Country Director, based in Juba.

Source: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/17-april/comment/opinion/south-sudan-needs-help-to-avoid-civil-war