16 April 2010
Africa News

Humanitarian agencies in South Sudan are responding to a dramatic increase in the number of internally displaced people following an intensification of inter-tribal clashes. It is thought that the escalation of fighting is due to a series of different factors including a very low level of development compounded by insufficient rainfall in many parts of the south as well as the availability of small arms.



Below is a question and answer section with Marilena Chatziantoniou, who works for the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. She has been monitoring developments there.

Question: What is the current situation in terms of the number of internally displaced people (IDP) in South Sudan?

Marilena Chatziantoniou(MC): It can be difficult to get accurate figures of the number of IDPs in South Sudan given the huge size of the region and the remoteness of many communities; however according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in 2009 there were around 390,000 new IDPs. This is more than any previous year since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 between the north and south of Sudan. By mid-March this year an additional 50,000 had been displaced.

Q: What has caused the increase in IDPs?

MC: The majority of people have fled their homes because of increased conflict between rival tribes or even disputes between clans within those tribes. The interesting question is why were there so many more IDPs in 2009.

It is a complicated combination of causes, but there are probably two main factors, at least in Lakes State, which I recently visited; in a very poorly developed region low rainfall has led to increased competition over resources, such as pasture and grazing land and the continued availability of small arms.

South Sudan normally would not suffer from drought conditions; indeed many areas are prone to flooding. But a very poor rainy season in 2009 has meant that many communities have lacked water and have been unable to grow crops. This in many places coincided with large-scale displacement resulting in the loss of food reserves and other household items.

Q: What are the reasons for this situation?

MC: Anecdotal evidence suggests that small arms are still available despite the government's disarmament efforts and so when there is conflict it can escalate easily and very quickly. There have always been tribal clashes in the south but one senior UN official I spoke to in Rumbek in Lakes State told me that rival tribes are now using 'excessive force' when fighting each other, which he said was a new development.

IDPs I have spoken to in different locations in South Sudan told me that when they were attacked, weapons were inevitably being used. It is estimated that in 2009, 2,500 were killed as a result of tribal clashes. In 2010, this trend has unfortunately continued will already almost 450 people killed by mid-March.

Q: What has the humanitarian response been?

MC: The European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) through its partners on the ground is responding to those crises where possible, helping the affected people. In South Sudan it is funding humanitarian relief work to the tune of 38 million euros for 2010.

I recently visited a group of 3,000 IDPs in Malou, not far from Rumbek in Lakes State, who settled around 20 kilometres from their original home following inter-tribal fighting.

Humanitarian agencies have provided them with food, shelter material and household items. ECHO, through its partner Oxfam GB, supported the building of a borehole which is now providing the IDPs with fresh clean water. Some of the people I spoke to told me that their children were healthier and no longer suffered from diarrhoea as a result of having access to this clean water.

Many people were also using the run-off water from the pump to water small gardens of leaves called kadura which they put in meat soups. We didn't expect to see gardens like this, they were not part of the plan, but they are a good illustration of how the people in Malou are helping themselves.