Violence Erupts Again in South Sudan as Faith in Peace Deal Flounders. The Guardian
A 2-twelvemonth-old male child was shot in the arms of his neighbor. A woman was dragged into the streets and raped. Others were killed in their homes trying to protect their properties from looters. Eyewitnesses seeking refuge at the compound of the Catholic cathedral in Wau, in northward-west South Sudan, take described horrendous acts of violence after heavy fighting erupted in the town on 24 June.
They recounted how soldiers from the army (the SPLA) and immature people from the Dinka ethnic group attacked neighbourhoods inhabited by ethnic Fartit.
"Nosotros were at habitation when we heard the sound of gunfire," said Paulino, a Fartit authorities worker who didn't want to requite his surname. "Nosotros saw soldiers from the SPLA shooting at civilians." Paulino grabbed his children and ran for safety towards the cathedral, but non earlier he saw soldiers gun down three members of his family.
Co-ordinate to the UN, more than than 70,000 people have been displaced and dozens reportedly killed in what is probable to be the worst violence South Sudan has seen this year.
"In every street, yous could see three to four bodies," said Mariana Isidoro, a medical worker who helped bury five of her neighbours at an improvised cemetery in the cathedral's grounds.
Attacks against civilians, rather than direct confrontations betwixt armed groups, have been a defining characteristic of South Sudan's ceremonious war, which began in December 2013. Only the spread of violence to Western Bahr el Ghazal – a region that was spared during much of the conflict – raises doubts whether a peace deal signed in August concluding year can address the state's indigenous disharmonize over land and power.
The violence in Wau comes two months afterwards President Salva Kiir, an indigenous Dinka, and rebel leader Riek Machar, a Nuer, formed a new power-sharing transitional regime. The deal, which divided up command of the presidency, the cabinet and the x states, is regarded by some equally merely settling the scores between the 2 men and their loyalists, while failing to address the root causes of violence or to safeguard the rights of dozens of other ethnic groups.
"In that location is no peace deal, only delaying tactics by the government. They are counting on the international community to release money in support of implementing the peace agreement," said a researcher who has worked in South Sudan for several years and asked not to be named. "In the meantime, the state, through the SPLA, is continuing with its military operations confronting predominantly non-Dinka communities."
The incident in Wau was preceded past months of rising tensions between the Dinka, who are South Sudan's largest ethnic group, and the Fartit, who form the bulk of the local population effectually Wau. Thousands of immature Dinka from a neighbouring region are said to have recently migrated to the town in what locals see every bit a government-backed campaign to increment Dinka control over land and resources in areas traditionally inhabited by other groups.
The ethnic divide in Wau is obvious. In the days after the violence, streets in the boondocks's northern areas, inhabited more often than not by Dinka, were lively. Selection-up trucks mounted with machine guns and total of soldiers toting AK-47s, mostly Dinka, patrolled the area. In contrast, the southern and western parts of town, home to the Fartit, were deserted after people flocked to churches and the Un base of operations for protection.
The SPLA's commander in Wau denied that his soldiers had killed any civilians. "It was the rebels who infiltrated the town," said Lt Gen Gabriel Jok Riak, one of six government and rebel commanders placed nether United nations sanctions for human rights abuses committed during the first year of the disharmonize.
The commander's words fit the narrative the regime uses to explicate the ascent of ethnic clashes between Dinka and not-Dinka communities.
In the adjacent region of Western Equatoria, young men from the Zande ethnic group rose upwards last year when Dinka cattle herders, protected by the SPLA, were blamed for occupying local farmland. In the northern boondocks of Malakal, Dinka SPLA soldiers attacked a United nations camp in February, targeting ethnic Nuer and Shilluk. The latter defendant the authorities of annexing parts of their ancestral land. In both Malakal and Western Equatoria, the government blamed opposition forces for inciting violence.
"The official narrative is that 'rebels' are causing instability," said the researcher. "But the reality is that immature local men have been targeted by the SPLA every bit potential dissidents and are then forced to go into the bush."
Machar's opposition reportedly admitted to engaging with the SPLA south of Wau to help civilians evacuate, but denied inbound the town. The United nations estimates that around 35,000 people, many of them young men, accept fled to the bush, while the aforementioned number take been displaced within the town. Help agencies take started providing humanitarian assistance to the displaced.
Many in Wau are still fearful virtually returning to their homes, having lost confidence in the peace deal and in their authorities's ability to protect them. "I'yard calling on the government of South Sudan to stop these bug," said Rozana Isidoro, the female parent whose two-yr-old male child was killed in the violence. "Nosotros don't desire tribalism. We desire peace and stability."
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/05/violence-erupts-again-in-south-sudan-wau-as-faith-in-peace-deal-flounders
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