The Third Sudanese War?

There is a funny feeling in the air these days in Juba. Initially there was growing tension. The separation rallies were more frequent and more energetic, the mass-media was focused and still is only on the separation related issues and the negotiations on oil revenue, the consultations and negotiations on the future of the oil rich Abiey region and related to that, the Dinka – Mysereia tribal relations.
Then things started getting more serious: the North, the Sudanese Armed Forces deploys 70,000 troops along the North Sudan – Southern Sudan border and concentrates them around the oil rich and strategic region of Abyei. The SPLA moves an alleged 50,000 in response and an unknown number of armored units, anti aircraft units, etc.
Then the provocations start all over the spectrum: Warlike declarations by Al Bashir and his puppets and an intransigent position by GOSS President Salva Kiir, who in a very smart political move, pardons all armed rebel groups, who now are becoming integrated in the regular army or disbanded, freeing his back from a potential second front to be fueled by the North, according to an old and tried tradition.
Bashir offers to buy the Southerners with promises of wealth and development, in the 12th hour. Kiir calls all political forces in a three day marathon congress and makes them declare publicly full and total support for referendum and eventual war.
Some observers, me included, think that Al Bashir is fighting for his life here, or at least for his liberty. So he will never let the referendum, at least in Abiey, to take place, whatever it takes, but he will try the negotiation and political maneuvering first. However, at this game, unexpectedly, Salva Kiir seems to best him. The latest bombshell is the “defection” of one of the most popular and successful soldier of the Northern Sudanese Army, general Tanginya, a South Sudanese Dinka by birth, who arrived today from Khartoum to join the South.
But the most impressive fact is the casual, calm manner of the Abiey traditional leaders the chiefs of the various clans of the Dinka tribe. In a private interview, they confessed that in the past they were fooled with false promises by the Northern, Arab leaders to remain in an united Sudan. Now, no more. They are adamant they don’t need anybody to organize the referendum, they will organize it themselves and show the world they are part of the Southern Sudan. And if anybody will try to stop them, they will fight. In the past they have always fought the Arabs. For centuries. And since the independence in 56, for 40 years in two wars. It is a traditional past time, fighting a war is something expected of every man, it is as normal, more normal even than peace. In the past they used to fight with spears, now they have graduated to Kalashnikovs and whatever else the Government of Southern Sudan will provide.
UN peace keeping forces have made a timid show of bravery until now saying they will take positions in the hotspots to prevent conflicts and avoid civilian casualties. The Security Council has made all the right noises, but…I doubt the UN troops will move, if they move I doubt they will fight. It would be a first!
Making bets when the war will start has become a favorite topic here in Juba. Less and less people believe the South will get out of it without either giving away Abiey or fight for it.

Security issues in Juba, Sudan

Dear friends,

I have just returned from Kabul in Afghanistan. Friends, colleagues ask me how dangerous is Kabul compared to Juba. Well, the email alert I just received I think explains it all. In Afghanistan, the Taliban, will choose a target and then shoot it or send a suicide bomber (although I understand they are getting to be a scarce resource). Here in Juba two Sudanese soldiers get into an argument and chose to decide who is right by employing their government issued Kalashnikovs. Their training being what it is, they chose as dueling ground the busiest market place in Juba, Jebel Market, (in the picture) and they kill four people and wound nine others but don't manage to shoot each other...Now I can explain the difference between security issues in Afghanistan and in Sudan...
"Hello All

Violence in Juba continues to escalate. All staff should exercise extreme caution.

02 October Four people (foreigners) were shot dead on spot and 9 others were critically injured at the JEBEL market, Juba at the afternoon hrs between 100 -200pm. The gunshots were between the 2 armed Sudanese military men engaged in a personal issue. The victims who perished in a bloody crossfire are confirmed to be 2 Ugandans and 2 Congolese citizens. The remaining casualties were Sudanese and Kenyans. The gunshot victims were transferred to Juba Teaching Hospital."

Gender Story

Young girl expressing in wonderful, simple words her vision of life: to learn a trade, to have a good job, a family, opportunities…Obi was listening and I know she heard her.


He is a university graduate and works for a multinational company in Juba. He is a Southern Sudanese and a Dinka. His girl friend of many years is also a university graduate and she works for the Government. She is also a Dinka. And she is tall, very tall, again like most Dinka. They were planning to marry at one point but were not yet ready and they didn’t have enough money for the wedding. And then her father “gives” her, or rather auctions her. She fetches a good price because she is very tall and educated. She is to be the third wife of a man rich in cows. So now, this nice modern couple is faced with a terrible dilemma? How can he outbid the other candidate and get the girl ? He has no money! Well, that’s what families are for in Africa. All his uncles chip in and he gets “pledges” for 200 cows. Then he goes and places his “bid” and… he wins!! The final contractual agreement is now for the price of 150 cows. Cash down or cows down, it doesn’t matter and the other 50 are “on call”. He now owes his relatives the equivalent of 200 cows or about 80,000 dollars. More than 10 years of work at current labor price. Whenever one of his cousins will want to marry he will have to provide cattle, or money. He is terrified eventually this will happen.
This trading goes on all the time. Girls are nurtured and raised to be tall ( the main attribute to set a high price) because they bring in cattle. And CATTLE means everything to a Dinka! Education is also good for price , but not too much!! Fathers ( if they can be called that) have learned that if the girl gets too educated , she starts being “uppity” and wants to be ‘in love’ with the man of her choice, not of HIS choice.
There are only 8 (eight, it is not a typo ) trained midwifes in South Sudan. 2000 young women out of 100,000 die every year giving birth. You can also put it that a girl has more chances to die giving birth than finishing high school.
What can be done about this? Human rights organizations and the whole humanity rises against slavery and the fact that approximately 200,000 Southern Sudanese were taken into slavery during the war is considered to be a horrible crime. But how can we define these everyday occurrences in Southern Sudan ? The work the Bank and other NGOs are doing here are a drop in an ocean. The Bank finances a project for vocational training for young girls that have dropped out of school. They will train about 3,000 girls. Let’s hope at least these girls will be able to make their own lives as they want , not to become the third or fourth wife of a Dinka or Bari man rich in cattle…And maybe they will raise their daughters to be independent and in turn…

"Fishing" trip

Professor William Kosar, Honorable Lawrence Kamilo, and yours truly set out on a fishing expedition…I bring the initiative, the fishing tackle and the car an old Mitsubishi wreck; Bill brings the Honorable and the breakfast (coffee and rolls); Lawrence brings the local know-how of the terrain and the authority of the Government. Thus equipped we set out for Rajaf, a village near the Nile, about ten miles upstream.
During this exciting day Bill makes a great statement, aimed to comfort us from the frustrating attempts to catch fish: “ Fishing is not about catching fish, because it would be called catching fish! It is about bonding together people that engage in similar passions, make things together …” Well. I would say we surpassed any record at bonding! Not only did we indeed bond together, but we managed to bond my Mitshubishi Pajero with a Toyota Landcruiser! My car decided to go on strike in the middle of a puddle in a swampy area and got bogged down. We left it in charge of a kid and went fishing and at noon decided to do something about it. In the calm, quiet, slow African way a cable was brought from several miles away, a Toyota Hardtop came and we pulled my reluctant car out. The remarkable thing followed when I pulled my wallet out to pay for the services and Lawrence said: ” No, Dan! don’t give them anything. The community has decided to help you and for that you don’t pay”. I insisted to pay for the cable at least, which had been destroyed in the process, and I gave 30 pounds as prize to the kid that found my knife in the water. Another quiet ceremony, in which a big boy brought forward a small kid to receive his prize. These people are Bari, a really nice, proud but hospitable tribe.
Oh! And I forgot to tell you guys: We didn't catch any fish worth mentioning...but we bought some and grilled them later...wihtout mentioning any origin!

New school in Sudan.

Schools in time of war and procurement guidelines

David is a grumpy retired procurement specialist and construction engineer. Does some part time consulting here. He is always very critical of any inefficiency so you can imagine how in love he is with the super Sudanese administration. Today we drive together and he tells me a story which I feel had left him quiet and thoughtful.
He was lambasting an official of the Ministry of Education for failing to open some bids and delaying thus the procurement process. The official looked at him for a long time and said:
“David, let me tell you something about education in Southern Soudan. When we started the civil war against the North, there were very few schools and in the areas we controlled, most of the country, rural areas, there were none. Our leaders, John Garang and the others, recognized that if nothing was done they were condemning the whole nation to illiteracy and obscurity.
They decided then to do something about it and they turned to their soldiers and asked which ones knew English and how to read and write. These soldiers were pulled out of their units and they were told each to take his gun and go in a village and there to set up school and teach the kids how to read an write. I was one of those soldiers, turned teacher overnight without any training. We went to the villages: Of course, we found no schools, but we found a big tree, which gave nice shade, and some rocks for the kids to sit on. And then, we needed a black board, but there were no blackboards. So I sat with the village elders to see what we can do. And we came up with the idea to stretch the skin of a black cow over a frame. And that is how we did the blackboard. But we had no chalk. So with the village elders we thought about it and we came with the idea to boil cassava root and we tried to write with it. Well it went very fast, but we could write. So, throughout the war, I served as a teacher instead of serving as a soldier, without any pay, working on a cow hide and cassava root. And if today you still find Dinka’s and Nuer and Bari, and all the other nations still speaking English and the few literate it is because of these teachers.
But David, nobody taught us in the bush about the procurement procedures…”

Bush trip to Djebel

Working in Sudan …hotel, office, hotel, office…air conditioning , indifferent food, I could be anywhere…I decided Sunday I am going to break the pattern. Got other guys crazy enough to come with me and make a hike on the ridge of the Djebel, a mountainous outcrop east of Juba. Picture 1. Hard work in the heat of about 30 – 38 .In the begining, going up, there were quite a number of good paths, made by the poor stone workers ( people who bring stones from the Djebel and then crush them with hand hammers to make gravel) . You must be really poor to do this…( see picture)
Later the paths disappeared and to come down we went straight through the bush. I saw a pair of monkeys , a pair of Guinea Fowls, a couple of snakes. I was using the old technique to make sure I don’t surprise any snake, beating the earth ahead of me with a stick. We exited the Djebel at a modern quarry, where the foreman told us they don’t go up there because of mines left from the war. I could assure them there are none in view of our own experience …We had only found a fragment of an artillery shell. Of course, I had checked before but still it was an unpleasant moment. I rather think they spread the word so that they don’t have to worry about unwanted visitors and eventual accidents.