What the South Sudan crisis means to Uganda

Samuel Paul Thion Bol wants to play in the English Premier League for Chelsea alongside his idol and world famous striker Didier Drogba.

If it was not for a fact that he is only 13 years old and thousands of miles away from Great Britain in a northern Uganda refugee camp, his dreams would have sounded foolhardy yet they are not. He still has time to make the impossible happen despite his predicament.

Under the unforgiving midday heat, the slender, dark bald headed boy dribbles an old beat up ball through several of his colleagues skillfully and with a smile on his face. He is clad in his uniform that is now soiled with dust and wet patches from the beads of sweat that trickle down his face.

He is a delight to watch, not for his talent but for the hope and joy he embodies in the harsh environments within which he dwells. He and his family have for the last one year and a half been camped in the Nyumanzi refugee settlement camp in Adjumani district.

They fled home country South Sudan at the tail end of 2013 during the violence that not only wrecked the country but also split it along tribal lines that pit the country’s two biggest ethnic groups, the Nuer and the Dinka against each other.

Subsequently, it was the killings and massacres of civilians in Bor, Bentiu, Malakal and across the country affecting all ethnicities and persons that prompted his mother and six of his siblings – without their father – to leave their home in the Jonglei sate of South Sudan and seek refuge in a land foreign to them – northern Uganda.

“My father is a government police man in Juba. He remained behind to fight and even married another wife who is from Kenya. He deserted us,” he remarks with a smile.

However, despite being without a father, the family of eight has managed to make it through the past year staying in the conical mud and wattle huts that make up the settlement and living on food handouts and services from aid agencies like UNCHR, PLAN, World Vision that have pitched camp in the area.

On this particular day Thion, who is a pupil of Nyumanzi Primary School, is at the Nyumanzi II child friendly space.

This is a recreation and learning area that was set up by PLAN Uganda in a bid to not only help socialise the refugee children into society but to ensure that they have access to the vital requirements for a balanced growth like education, the right to play and protection.

“I come here every afternoon to train in football and also meet my friends. It is fun but I do wish I could return home one day,” he mutters as the grin he had bravely held across his face fades and is replaced by a blank face and a tinge of sadness in his tone.

Violence intensifies
And the change in his expression his well founded. It has been a more year since he was last at home and the rumor has been rife within the camps that much us there is a ceasefire in place as diplomatic dialogue to settle the conflict between the Salva Kiir and Riek Machar camps in Ethiopia, there are still skirmishes between the government and rebels within the country.

John Thon Gai, a 39-year-old who joined the Nyumanzi camp three weeks ago, says the situation has not improved as the world has been made to think.

“There is still serious violence in the country. Juba is relatively stable but outside Juba in the countryside where the World is not looking people are killing each other,” he remarks.

Coincidentally, reports from South Sudan indicate that in March alone, there were several flashes of violence with the largest being to 130 rebels killed by government troops in South Sudan with peace talks now on the fringes of collapse.

And as this happens, the Ugandan government through the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and Aid agencies has been forced to contemplate a longer term settlement plan for the refugees.

“There is no end in sight to their situation. Unlike in the previous cases where we had to set up temporary structures settlements for these refugees, this time we are putting up some permanent infrastructure like schools and health centres as this has dragged on longer than we anticipated,” explains Paul Ajusi, the deputy Refugee Desk Officer (RDO) in the OPM.

“However, when this violence is over we shall encourage them to return home since seeing them stay permanently as citizens – naturalisation – is not the first consideration, voluntary repatriation is. And as for the infrastructure, we shall repurpose it to serve the local communities.”

Statistics from the OPM indicate that currently there are an estimated 93,000 refugees in the region in several camps like Baratuku and Ayilo and there is still an influx of more.

“On average we used to receive about 100 refugees daily last year, but not they are about 50 though we expect that the situation may be exacerbated by the strain in talks and that number may grow,” Ajusi adds.

Grim outlook
Figures from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency paint a much graver situation. They indicate that as of January 2015, the number of refugees from South Sudan in northern Uganda was in the region of 120,000.

Fikru Abebe, the PLAN country director says that forecasts that the conditions may get worse for the refugees in terms of supporting their livelihoods with food, water, housing and other services unless the international communities revert their focus to South Sudan.

“Aid organisations are finding it a challenge to source out funding to maintain the support they are offering in these camps mainly because the international donor community is now shifting their focus away from South Sudan when the violence has not receded yet and is not about to for a long time,” he says.

So far, refugees have started registering complaints about how the conditions have hit their worst. From the drought that has triggered water shortage to the unbalanced diet that is their food rations, many are looking to heavenly intervention to save the life of their children.

“We have no sugar, no meat just sorghum and beans for the entire year we have been here. These children need a balanced diet to grow,” decries Halima Mustafa, a 27 year old mother of three.

However, for now, those fears are beyond Thion. He runs about the playground, giggling with his friends unaware that his urge to return home is all but a far cry.

THE NUMBERS

93,000
Estimated number of refugees in Uganda

50
Estimated number of refugees who come into Uganda every day

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