South Sudan: The Longer Peace Takes, the Worse It Gets

Juba — South Sudan is taking the first steps in what promises to be a long process of healing the fractures that prompted more than five weeks of fighting, potentially leaving thousands of people dead and wounded and displacing 863,000 others.

But tensions remain high, following reports of continued fighting in some areas of the country and the government's decision to move forward with treason charges against four remaining political detainees. And the longer the process stretches on, the worse the situation will become for the hundreds of thousands of displaced across the country.

As the numbers of internally displaced continue to grow, the U.N. and humanitarian partners are struggling to provide enough food, clean drinking water and shelter for all of them.

Upper Nile State Information Minister Philip Jiben Ogal told IPS there was gunfire last week outside of Malakal, the state capital. The fighting is in contravention of an almost two-week-old ceasefire agreement between the government and rebels.

Martin Ojok Karial lives in Malakal, working in the Ministry of Finance's taxation office. Malakal suffered two waves of fighting and was temporarily held by government forces. The town's central market is destroyed and at least 27,000 people have sought refuge at the United Nations base on the outskirts of town. Karial is one of them.

The humanitarian medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also announced Jan. 31 that ongoing insecurity had forced thousands of people to flee into the bush in Unity State.

Karial sees the fighting as a political feud that was allowed to get out of control.

"A lot of people were dying without any reason," Karial told IPS. "Because the clashes are between two people. The president of South Sudan and the vice president. This is no reason for people to fight and kill themselves."

The fighting here first broke out in a Juba military barracks on Dec.15 and spread quickly - first throughout the capital and then across central and eastern South Sudan. President Salva Kiir accused his political rival and former deputy Riek Machar of launching a coup against the government. Machar has repeatedly denied the charges, though he acknowledges he is now in open rebellion against the government.