Clarification Statement Regarding Dar Petroleum Operating Company-Community Development Sponsored Scholarships For the Melut Community That Was Taken Out Of Context On the Social Media Outlets By Some South Sudanese Ethnics

By Maluth Juaj

Melut County is one of the Petroleum Producing areas in South Sudan, and it has the right to get scholarships due to oil exploitation that has obliterated its territory.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan, signed in January 2005 by the Government of Sudan, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, put an end to a civil conflict that has lasted for more than two decades and has claimed the lives of more than two million Sudanese.

The agreement opened the way for a more equitable distribution of revenues from the country's energy sector-revenues desperately needed to rebuild South Sudan wracked by decades of conflict and neglect.

But implementation of the wealth-sharing components of the CPA has been disappointingly slow. The parties express their dissatisfaction with how the agreements are being implemented.

The 2012 Petroleum Act and 2013 Petroleum Revenue Management Act is an official law in use in the Republic of South Sudan since 2013 to grant the right to the indigenous community. After a comprehensive parliamentary process, it was signed into law by His Excellency President Salva Kiir.

Therefore, this was the percentage that the DPOC-CD gave to the indigenous community that had been expected by oil impact, to compensate the indigenous community for the loss of their villages due to the oil facilities.

So, community development is a process in which community members are supported by operating companies to identify and take collective action on issues of concern to them. 

Its main purpose is to build community-based education, health, agricultural activities, and physical infrastructure. So that all indigenous people can participate in issues that affect their lives.

Community development is an academic system that aims to promote stable development, human rights, equal opportunities, and social justice for the indigenous community around the oil-producing area. 

By organizing strong education, health, agricultural activities, physical infrastructure, and empowering people in urban and rural communities. 

In nutshell, this scholarship is the sole proprietorship of the Melut community that has nothing to do with other tribes or communities and you have no absolute right to make a claim, that the Melut community has been under environmental pollution that is causing deadly diseases that kill our people every day, every month, and every year.

Ergo, we never hear your voices when Melut Community suffers from an environmental impact that has claimed the many lives of our people. I don't know why some tribes in Upper Nile State and South Sudan in general are very jealous of this scholarship, that's what you should know about this scholarship. This is not a government scholarship from the Ministry of Petroleum or the Ministry of Education.

Dear hypocrites and jealous ones, we will continue to break your hearts by the grace of God, because you do not share environmental pollution with us. This oil was given by God to the people of Melut and God does not make a mistake to make Melut an oil-producing area and then wait until God makes your area oil-producing until you get your sole scholarship and we will never ask you for even one seat.

This is the voice of the citizen by the citizen for the citizen.

Yours in the Struggle

The author is a political activist, liberal writer, member of the SPLM roundtable and human rights activist based in Khartoum, Sudan. He can be reached via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..