Socio-Political aspect of inter-communal conflict in South Sudan’s local communities

By Zechariah Makuach Maror

The tribal engineered violence among local communities in South Sudan is one of the factors neglected by the national government since the independence of the country in 2011. It's one of the risking thresholds which is sometimes exploited by some politicians for their own political jubilation. Among the conflicts in South Sudan, the conflict among Nilotic tribes invariably translates into the arms struggle between the government and outlaws’ emissaries. Among the Few tribal conflicts that culminated into arms warfare was Lou Nuer-Murle of 2012 that was proportional to government versus corporal faction's conflict and recent conflict of government versus IO's faction which had just ended up with R-ARCSS. These two conflicts make apparent example that are well known to everyone; not because civil population is interesting in battling the government but the government left the window of security doubt that obliged every inhabitant in rural area to think of possessing one's' own weapons to protect him/herself from any aggression that may arise as results of nature, thus such exploitable point remain as inevitable point of skirmish that is always capitalized by politicians who got no agenda than birthright rebellion vested in their right's hearts. 

The imperceptible reason behind local conflict in Bahr El Ghazal region is magically viewed as a placard illicitly masterminded by politicians in expense of political gain. The endless inter communal clashes among locals in greater lakes and Warrap States is in most cases a breastplate of politicians who are aspiring for position of governorship or ministerial appointment. The intercommunal confrontation in the two above States is beyond compare; recently, civilians in greater Tonj of Warrap State were butchering themselves like if they’re Islanders. The fact remains the same, no one cares. The sole responsibility of protecting civilians lies upon the government that has hung itself in far trunks of Jupiter planet called Juba. The issue could have been better if Jupiter residents were secure from unknown gunmen, better Tonj civilians who claimed to know their enemy in order to embark on mob Justice. 

I think, rural communities bleeding is an obvious results of our great Fathers’ mistake during those days of SPLA/M conscription in the struggle, giving the blunder of the day, our fathers offered to the Army unkind heartless children whose their actions don’t match the values of the society with hope that they would dies in frontline fighting Arabs so that families get rid of their actions which sometimes resulted to compensation, penalties fines: mid of them some were murderers, some were extramarital, some were thieves and among others, these heartless category of those days are now leaders of today. What do you expect of them when their parents disowned them because of their carelessness? The same atrocious heart is still inside them up to date, so the care less about people and care most about their political vitalities, this shows that even if civilians bleed in barrels, it will not owe them sympathy to save lives, but search the point of weakness in such bloodiest event to exploit it in order yearn political dividends for him/herself. 

The perpetuated inter-communal clashes among local communities is little more connected to the operational systems of the government of South Sudan, giving the reality of proliferated modern weapons in the hands of civilians.  We all know that South Sudanese blacksmiths don't smithed AK-47, the automatic guns which are now used by civilians are not manufactured locally but imported by the government in Ukraine and Russia Federation. The process of how civilians possessed it is the only qualm everyone points his/her fingertip at the government, the only liable institution to import weapons in South Sudan. The truth is that these local hostile youths are armory equipment with PKM, RPG and Mortar than regular soldiers of the government who always move with short range AK-47. This has not only made these armed youths hostile to themselves but give them the impression of viewing our servicemen in uniform as teethless barking dogs. Sometimes these local wild youths blitz Army convoys in Juba-Wau, juba-Bor and Juba-Nimule roads without facing the repercussions instead raid army convoys. 

communal conflicts in particularly the greater Warrap state and Jieng community at large have been between different pastoralist groups and less incidents between farmers and pastoralists. This pattern is almost similar among South Sudanese pastoral tribes. Significantly, none of the communal conflicts in South Sudan indicates that the group community’s settlement is less prone to end up in conflicts. At the Centre of the many of these communal conflicts are cattle. For many Nilotic ethnic groups, cattle are at the Centre of life. The cattle are sacred and the value of the wealth is measured in cattle. In addition, in pastoralist communities, dowries are believed to be paid in cattle and for this reason cattle-rustling is the best option for some young men as the only chance of getting married. Also, cattle-rustling is a way to prove your manhood within some societies, it is one of the prestigious cultural sentiment that, using muscles for partaking someone's herd of cattle rent you respect and stamina in the family, thus promise you marriage to any genuine girl in the community, as exemplified above, it indicates that our communities are culturalizing violence in their daily life.

 The number of communal conflicts in South Sudan varied fairly moderately between locals, some taking social trends, others take political and economic trends. The successor years of South Sudan independence witnessed increased number of communal conflicts; even since the end of the war with the North or major South-North cleavage of 21 years have unleashed local grievances. With the end of the war, the uniting factor of facing a common enemy had gone, and different communities and in particular our leaders positioned themselves against each other on ethnic lines which has resulted in the 2013 rampage, a nightmare which its narrative is unforgettable. 

This political struggle on who should control South Sudan sometimes exacerbated tribal and communal conflicts among local communities. Also, after the signing of the R-ARCSS many refugees and internally displaced persons have cripple one step to return to their homes, and this creates plain problems in relevance to who has the right to certain lands. As noted in the overview of land conflicts in Juba of Equatoria region, there is some indication that the average number of such grievances need to be addressed otherwise it will make some prepare for the other side of the law. This issue of land preferred others to view UNMISS protection of civilians site as an alternative housing for living giving the lack of government appropriate mechanism in dealing with issues of grabbed plots during the time of egotistical conflict between two begotten men. 

Communal conflicts can directly cause enormous human insecurity in the form of deaths, injuries, displacement, and loss of livelihood. Moreover, communal conflicts can lead to further suffering as they can pave the way to other forms of organized violence. In Lakes and Warrap States, communal conflicts preceded the disturbance and growing clannism that purged the laws, followed by human suffering and disaster. If the communal conflicts could have to be addressed and resolved at an early stage, hundreds of thousands of lives might have been saved. According to me, one of the main factors that exacerbated intercommunal conflict between the local communities in these states is the reluctance of the government to intervene at an earlier stage as a master of absolute power. For instance, the casual deployment of troops after the local communities fought to their exhaustion is one factor which is encouraging the local conflicts. 

To add an insult to the injury, the law enforcement servicemen in uniform are in most cases seasonal in the area, this means that the government emergence rescue forces flow into local area of conflict with brutality and punitive measure within the short period of time when there is conflict, and after a while the leave, leaving the same communities in the risk of suspicious and thus opted to resume their interrupted conflict. This made disarmament in local areas difficult because local community’s youth hide their weapon hoping that the government is seasonal and they will leave anytime.  Of course, this is easily to said with the disastrous result in our politicians’ hand, but there are warnings about this scenario that in some years to come these problems of intercommunal conflict in these two states will escalates into the rebellion in nearest future. This shows that communal conflicts are often partial aspect of wider conflicts and an understanding of these complexities is often necessity in order to bring about peace. A correct analysis of the conflict is therefore needed from good conflict resolvers before any party intervenes otherwise it would be endless routine.

The writer is an activist and he could be reached via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.