By Aron Mwasile, Director of INcontext’s Tanzania Office
Aron Mwasile is the director of INcontext’s Tanzania office. He recently spent time in South Sudan meeting and speaking with refugees who have returned from spending time in Uganda, as well as those who chose to remain in South Sudan throughout the country’s civil war. The following article is an account of Aron’s experience during his time in the country, detailing his interactions and conversations with people affected by the ongoing conflict.
BACKGROUND
South Sudan became an independent nation on 9 July, 2011 after decades of deadly clashes against Arabs in the north. While this was largely seen as a great move toward lasting peace, South Sudan’s independence was not free of violence, and conflict was reported in nine of the country’s ten states in 2011. As tensions continued to rise, civil war was officially declared in South Sudan two years after its statehood. Insecurity reached a breaking point in July 2013, when President Salva Kiir fired his entire cabinet, including Vice President Riek Machar, following accusations of a coup d’etat. After a few months of relative calm, violence erupted in December 2013, and fighting broke out between government forces and soldiers loyal to Mr Machar. President Kiir is part of the Dinka ethnic group, and Mr Machar is of the Nuer tribe, which added a tribal component to the conflict. These two ethnic groups, both pastoralist tribes, have clashed in the past, and the political conflict seemed to only deepen this divide.
Amid threats of sanctions, President Kiir signed a new peace deal with Mr Machar in August 2015. As part of a deal to end South Sudan’s civil war, President Kiir reinstated Riek Machar as vice president. Mr Machar was sworn in on 26 April, 2016. Less than six weeks later, fighting broke out once again between government forces and soldiers loyal to Mr Machar. Hundreds were left dead, millions became displaced within South Sudan, and others fled to neighbouring countries, with Uganda becoming the largest host. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) about 2,500 refugees were crossing from South Sudan into Uganda every day in 2017.
INCONTEXT INTERVENTION
The overwhelming refugee crisis and the declared famine in South Sudan in early 2017 prompted an immediate response from INcontext International’s office in East Africa. I decided to make a trip to Northern Uganda where the South Sudanese refugees were hosted to better understand the situation from the ground experience. The reality on the ground was very far from what was being reported through the media. Refugees were not only hungry for food, but also for fellowship. I visited a woman who was raped by five men in front of her children. She was outside her half-built tent preparing her last meal with no idea when the next distribution will come. Surprisingly she didn’t mention anything about her worries for food, but she said, “my brother, I can live without food and water, but I can’t live without church.”
Christian leaders were overstretched by overwhelming spiritual and emotional needs with very minimal empowerment. When I asked about their prayer needs, one of the refugee pastors said “how can we (Christian leaders) counsel traumatised people while we are also traumatised. We need special training as leaders on how to do trauma counselling. We also need prayer for the rampant poverty among us that has made it difficult to spread the gospel to other camps. I am talking about transport. Last but not least is the lack of proper worship structures. When it rains, we cannot meet; we need at least iron sheets for roofing.”
In response to those prayer requests, five months later INcontext International launched a trauma training project aimed at helping church leaders deal with their own trauma first, and thereafter to counsel their congregants. Thirty pastors were trained of whom 10 were equipped as trainers after three consecutive years of training. Additionally, INcontext International developed an active member care relationship with some of the 10 pastors, which included support to specific projects and needs.
THE PURPOSE OF THE TRIP
Based on the media reports there has been an improvement in security and the political atmosphere within South Sudan since the signing of the peace agreement in 2018. Official reports say about 630,000 South Sudanese refugees decided to voluntarily return home between 2018 and 2022. However, due to the failure of the previous agreements, many refugees are doubtful and are not willing to take the risk of returning home.
On the other side in Uganda, UNHCR food distribution has been reduced to nearly zero, humanitarian support is diminishing, and some refugees feel like the land allocated to them is not enough to feed a family. Many refugees in the camps have only two options; to stay in camps or return home. Both options come with costs to pay.
INcontext International has continued praying for and supporting South Sudanese refugees in many ways. We have been in the camps and seen life in the camps, but now that some have decided to return home, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, I decided to travel to South Sudan to better understand the reality on the ground and how best we can be praying for and supporting our South Sudanese friends.
THE ROAD TRIP
I took a road trip from Dar es Salaam to Juba via Nairobi and Kampala. It took me three days and three nights to reach my destination. The journey was smooth and adventurous. It felt like one of the Beyond Borders* trips that INcontext organises, especially the one in which we travelled by bus from Dar es Salaam to Cape Town and back. Despite delays and tiredness, the road trip gave me enough time to learn, see, and interact with local people more than what the plane could offer. Furthermore, it was very helpful to get the real feel of the road which many refugee returnees use on their way back home.
FINDINGS
At Nimule, the entry point to South Sudan from Uganda, soon after you cross the boundary bridge, everything you see will tell you the context of the country you are in. Immigration and customs offices are in hut-like structures housed by corrugated metal sheets with no electricity. Before I entered the immigration offices, a police officer took my passport and asked me to follow her. She took me to five different small offices to look at my documents and each office wanted me to pay at least $10 for my passport to be stamped. They said, “this is not a visa payment but a contribution to the South Sudanese government,” but no receipt was given.
When I asked my South Sudanese neighbour on the bus about those charges, he said “government workers earn very little salaries, so corruption becomes the only way they can survive. For instance, soldiers and police get only a $3 salary per month and teachers get $5.”
The road distance from Nimule to Juba is only 195 kilometres, but it takes six hours to drive by bus due to poor roads and many checkpoints where non-nationals pay between $5-10 at each station. The roads in South Sudan are said to be safe, but passenger buses must be escorted by armed soldiers because of unpredictable ambushes by bandits. Someone told me, “due to life hardships some soldiers turn into bandits to ambush buses and get money.”
Unlike in Kenya, Tanzania, or Uganda where you can’t drive one hour without seeing farms and livestock, the road from Nimule to Juba passes through beautiful and fertile hills and plateaus but unfortunately, I didn’t see any farms nor animals. It was devastating to see empty homes, fields, and businesses with all the bushes overgrowing everything. I saw a few returnees trying to revive life in some ghost villages, but it seemed much was needed to start everything from scratch. For this reason, many returnees choose Juba as their point of entry because of security and availability of social services.
Currently, the situation in Juba is politically stable, but there remains a heavily armed security presence on every street. Unemployment and living costs are very high, contributing to high levels of crime. Motorcycle transport is very common and seems to be the easy way to cross streets on time and get a better view of things. During my stay in Juba, I hired a motorcycle not only as a quick mode of transport, but also as an easy way to meet and interact with as many people as possible. However, with high levels of crime and my foreign appearance, riding a motorcycle in Juba is very risky. One day when I was on the motorcycle, two boys chased me for 10 minutes. They reached me and wanted to grab my backpack. Fortunately, I was helped by a street vendor, but the vendor held my backpack and wanted me to pay him for his help.
On top of the already existing expanse of socio economic ills, Juba is currently overwhelmed by the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees returning every day. Almost all food materials are imported from outside, mainly Uganda and Sudan. Even though the river Nile passes at the centre of the city, there is no piped water system. People buy water from tankers operated by Ethiopians and Eritreans at $1 per drum. Only 10% of Juba is connected to the national electricity grid, the rest of the city is supplied by a private foreign company powered by generators. This is the main reason why the living cost in Juba is far beyond the reach of average South Sudanese citizens, especially returning refugees and IDPs. Returning refugees and IDPs inevitably choose to go for what they can afford, not what is good and safe.
Many returnees are hosted by relatives or friends. South Sudanese are naturally generous, but material generosity ends when the supply ends. Pastor Emmanuel Khamis (a pastor trained in trauma counselling by INcontext) confirmed this when he said, “here in South Sudan a guest is a guest for the first and the second day, but on the third day we expect him to contribute. I left my family in Rhino Camp and came here to make a way for them to return. This is my third month. I stay with my cousin. I don’t have any work to do. I wake up and sit there at the mango tree and in the evening go back to sleep, nothing to do. There are no jobs. I am supposed to contribute something here, but I don’t have any source of income. My father back in the camp also expects me to send them something, but I haven’t since I came.”
Few returning refugees, those who are able, buy cheap pieces of land in the outskirts of Juba in areas like Maloyok and build simple, yet beautiful houses as Christine and her husband did. I met Christine in Rhino camp in Uganda in early 2017 when she was just two months as a refugee in the camp. Like many other refugees, she was also very down and traumatised. She became part of our trauma training in Uganda and was equipped as a trainer. She and her husband are originally from Yei, but since the security in Yei is not yet stable, they decided to stay in Juba when they returned to South Sudan at the end of 2022. They built a two-room house in Maloyok and now they are hosting five other returnees who are totally dependent on them. After a good conversation with her outside her beautiful house, Christine had three prayer requests. One is about her health; she is in her second trimester of pregnancy, but she is experiencing strong pains that deprive her of sleep. The second is about work; she is trained as a teacher but there are no jobs available. Her third prayer request is about their financial sustainability; she thinks of starting a business in her locality, but she is trusting God for provision of startup capital.
Despite the hardships, many returning refugees and people of South Sudan are very positive about the future of their country. I met a woman in the town of Magwi, one of the towns most severely affected by the war. Hundreds were killed, including her husband, and the entire community left as refugees in Uganda. She is now back with her kids. She said, “the most important thing for us is peace, we don’t care about how much we have lost, what we need is peace. With peace, everything will be restored soon.”
Every weekend in Juba young people organise themselves in groups, regardless of their tribal lines, and hike to the top of Mount Jebel Kujur to dance and interact, not only for fitness, but as a way to connect and bring unity.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POSSIBLE INTERVENTIONS
The returning of refugees and internally displaced people in South Sudan marks a new season that opens more doors for ministry and opportunities to partner with God in his amazing work. Here are some of the opportunities I discovered while visiting the people of South Sudan.
Entrepreneurial ministry: It’s difficult to get jobs in South Sudan, especially for returning refugees. Even if jobs become available, the salaries are too little to sustain life, the exception being the few who get employment at international NGOs. Therefore, employment is not an option for most returning refugees, but entrepreneurship is. Emmanuel Khemis said, “things are very expensive here in Juba, but it’s not difficult to make money if you are an entrepreneur since everything here is money.” This is a huge opportunity for ministry to our South Sudanese brothers and sisters who are returning home. Most of them were equipped with entrepreneurship skills in the camps, but unfortunately the atmosphere in the camps wasn’t favourable for business. However, now, with some support, they could put these skills into practice.
Farming: The whole land of South Sudan is very beautiful and fertile. As I travelled across villages, I praised God for the richness of the land and conditions suitable for both livestock and crop production. Despite these riches, most of the fields are empty. There is no doubt that war has largely contributed to the backwardness of the agricultural sector. To many refugees, especially young people who were born or raised in the camps, agriculture is not a common occupation. Empowerment in agriculture is unquestionably going to promote sustainable development for both individuals and the country of South Sudan.
Trauma counselling and training: As I travelled across Juba, I saw many houses perforated with bullets as fresh as if it happened a day before. Some people have decided to leave those holes open in remembrance of what happened. I know this may trigger some pains and traumatic experiences, not only for returning refugees, but also for those who remained when they see the returning refugees and IDPs. There is a need for continued empowerment for trauma counselling for both the returning refugees and the welcoming communities.
We are happy that some of the trainers who were equipped by INcontext (in partnership with Petra College) are returning home. We can make good use of them by empowering them to raise more trainers in South Sudan.
Please join us in praying for:
- All government and tribal players to honour the peace accord, and for an end to the violence and unrest in South Sudan that would allow for more people to return to a safe and secure country
- Continued healing of trauma for both those who stayed in South Sudan and for those who fled and are returning. Pray for the restoration of emotional and mental health, and for communities to band together and support each other through the process
- South Sudan’s economic restoration, and for the creation of jobs that would allow the people to take care of their individual needs, as well as the needs of their families and communities
*Beyond Borders is a project of INcontext International that works to assist believers from the African Church to be involved beyond their borders and to contribute toward missions. This is achieved by providing opportunities for skills development and exposure to global missions.
