Hope, pain and patience lingers over South Sudanese refugees

To date, an over-reliance on humanitarian interventions has characterised response to the South Sudanese refugee situation and has compromised efforts to secure lasting and sustainable solutions.
Increasing international interest in the situation of refugees and the challenges about their return amid the war and continued armed activities in various parts of the country remains key and requires a renewed level of focus.

The world’s newest state, South Sudan, has a long and painful history. When the country gained independence in 2011, the decades of struggle that led to its establishment left a huge deficit in stability and justice.

Hopes and aspirations
The July clashes in Juba have driven thousands of South Sudanese from their homes for safety in Uganda. The 2013 and 2016 wars have dented their hopes and aspirations of a peaceful life after the separation from Sudan.

As many left Uganda after signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which led to the secession, some of them had to return to Uganda following the clashes between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir and then First Vice President Riek Machar.
Now in the camps, women, children huddle under trees with few torn mosquito nets tied on tree branches to try to catch some rest after a long walk. There is some hope to about 120,000 South Sudanese refugees living in Adjumani.

Ensure access
Speaking to them at Nyumanzi transit centre in Dzaipi, Joe McHugh the Irish Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, said: “Today, I have heard first-hand the stories of the refugees who have fled over the border to Uganda from South Sudan. The brutal conflict in South Sudan has caused immense human suffering. The refugees I met today are desperate for peace and the chance to build a life for themselves free from fear and violence.”

He said the renewed violence and killings would bring more suffering of the South Sudanese. “I have also seen the crucial and challenging work of UN Agencies and NGOs, in partnership with the Ugandan government to ensure that refugees have access to food, water and sanitation, health services, education and protection.”

UNHCR and its partners constructed schools, health centres, planted trees and drilled boreholes that were used by both the locals and nationals.

There is hope of having fairly better life after Irish government announced the funding of €400,000 (Shs1.5b) to World Food Programme, €200,000 (Shs755m) to UNHCR for three settlement camps and €1m (Shs3.7b) to UNHCR for support wider region.

The response to the refugees is almost always framed within the search for ‘solutions’. Yet traditional approaches to assistance based on humanitarian relief alone do not necessarily constitute the appropriate response to protracted refugee situations.

Need more space
Irish Aid humanitarian funding to South Sudan and for South Sudanese refugees in the region is now about €8m (Shs30.2b) so far this year.
In the camp, some of the children have distended stomachs and running noses, clear signs of their misery.

Sitting down under a tree, the health and Red Cross team said this is a sign of malnutrition, noting that the family would go to the nearest health centre for care later in the day.

“We walked for four days in the bush to escape the fighting. My husband even took off in a different direction and we have lost contact,” said one of the refugee mothers who identified herself only as Ajok.

“We need space for shelter, food and water but some of these things are lacking. I pray that my children do not catch pneumonia due to the coldness as there is no proper shelter,” she added.

Titus Jogo, the Adjumani refugee desk officer in Office of the Prime Minister, welcomed the move to give more land for the refugees. He said the supplementary land will enable the refugees to take part in agricultural production, which will supplement their food ration.
By July 20, Elizious Madrua, the coordinator for Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) Moyo Branch, said that 139 households with a population of 593 are camped at former Palorinya warehouse in Itula Sub-county, Obongi County.

“We have only two functional boreholes and also enough rooms at the warehouse although some of them have broken doors. We shall need the house to be renovated because the number keep increasing daily,” Madrua said.

Numbers keep rising
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is calling on all armed parties to ensure safe passage for people fleeing the fighting that erupted a few weeks ago. It is urging neighbouring countries to keep borders open to people seeking asylum.

At water points, hundreds of people with jerricans line up, waiting for water to arrive.

The women explained that the huge numbers in the camp meant that water could only be given once every two days.
Adjumani district now has about 170,000 South Sudanese refugees, a number that keeps rising every week.

This covers the period from 2013 to date according to figures from the desk officer at OPM. The number of refugees in camps from South Sudan following the ongoing fighting is stands at 37,000 according to both OPM and UNHCR.

At a makeshift home cobbled together with tree branches, blankets and plastic sheeting, refugees try to look for survival.
At the next home to four families all crammed into a small compound with a young woman lying under some shade, clearly sick.

Safety and security
Moi Justine, 37, a father of five children and resident of Kanyapo II village in Kajo-Keji County in South Sudan, fled on Monday and reached Moyo on Tuesday in order to keep the family safe.

Carrying a mattress, a bicycle and bags with few clothes, the tired looking Justine arrived with his five children and wife.

“My family was starving and we had no food because you cannot carry food with children. The situation is not good for us to live in because we are had just come out of a long civil war. Settling there is hard because we are not sure of safety and security. Uganda remains our second home though with hardships, I have to settle in the camp for safety. Children cannot be educated because some schools are shut down,” he narrated about the odds they are against.

Musa Ecweru the State Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, said the government was ready to assist more South Sudanese who would enter in Adjumani following the fighting.
He said the partner organisations helping the refugees should work on strategies for food security, health and poverty alleviation among the refugees.

Availing land
They have mainly travelled hundreds of kilometres on foot with their families, or via vehicles by Good Samaritans. Others arrived on boats with their belongings.

Due to the increasing number of refugees, authorities in Pakele Sub-county have, with permission of landlords, previously offered land at Ayilo 1 and 2, Boroli Ulua and Lewa for them to settle on.
A number of refugees have reportedly crossed in to Uganda with their herds of cattle while others have received their animals from various implementing agencies working in the area but they have since been grappling with limited grazing space.

Welborn Kenyi, the LC3 chairperson, said his office will liaise with landlords and clan leaders in the area to offer farming and grazing land for the refugees.

“We are one people. Let us help our brothers and sisters who have crossed into the neighbourhood to seek for safe haven by making them feel at home,” Kenyi appealed.

Some of those fleeing the country told Daily Monitor that the political situation remains fragile as many of the root causes of the war have not been resolved.
The threat of conflict reigniting is a real concern and that conflict over access to resources such as land, water and cattle is fuelled by tribal allegiances.

The cause
The conflict in South Sudan is the result of a complex mix of failed leadership, unmet post-CPA expectations, and a limited revenue base, all of which have conspired to generate current levels of instability. Clearly, there are no easy solutions.

They are not necessarily poor people in material terms, but they are fleeing from a country where it is no longer possible to live or survive.
What starts out as a temporary stay at a place far from home, usually due to warfare or crisis, has now turned into a permanent stay in foreign surroundings.

background
After Sudan’s independence in 1956, Sudanese began to move to northern Uganda fleeing the first civil war. This influx was temporarily halted by an agreement signed in Addis Ababa in 1972. But the trend in forced displacement was then reversed.

Events following seizure of power by Idi Amin in 1971, led to Ugandans, mainly from West Nile, fleeing into South Sudan, to escape reprisals after the fall of both Obote and Amin’s regimes in 1971 and 1979 respectively.
By the early 1980s there were 93,000 Ugandan refugees in southern Sudan.

Ugandan refugees returned to northern Uganda in the 1980s when the fighting in southern Sudan again intensified and their security was threatened. They returned to a country recovering from years of civil strife, and a volatile security situation with a number of rebel groups including Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which also led to internal displacement of almost two million Ugandans.

By July 1996, there were 244,780 officially registered Sudanese refugees in Uganda.
After decades of insecurity, a peace process in 2005 led to signing of the CPA, which heralded the start of the process of return to South Sudan.