Lt. Gen Gier, Manibe, Kok head to Warrap as north-south crisis spills over. As the border crisis flares, NEW TIME’S MABIOR PHILIP MACH talks to state Governor Nyandeng Malek:
Q. Civilians fleeing the recent fighting in, and the occupation of, Abyei by the Sudan Armed Forces have overwhelmed Warrap State. How are you coping?
The general situation or condition in the state is not that good for many reasons. The issue, which is now pressing so much, is food insecurity. There is no food. There is no food in the market. In addition, the hosting community and the displaced are just suffering the same now because before the Abyei occupation, know that the road from the north to the south was closed for the last one month now. And 99 percent of our supplies come from Khartoum. So, that one made the market to have nothing. The person who has money and one who has no money are just the same, especially in Twic County and Gogrial West where the government is sitting. That one is also triggering internal insecurity; because I don’t know for how long they will tolerate this. I have not seen a lot of killing, looting and all that. They have not happened yet, but yes, these are the things I foresee. If food does not come in to this state, I will have problem of internal security.
The occupation of Abyei now turns warrap into a frontline state. Are you scared?
Yes, of course. As the state authority, I now have two communities to take care of in all their needs; that is, the displaced and the host community. Yeah, of course, it is not easy now. Next time it will be Warrap state. As we know that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) is inside Abyei, and that the militia has been sent out; those in Unity and possibly the Murhalin Misseriya are coming into the villages of the displaced. So, of course, Warrap is under – is facing – that situation.
How are you coping with the IDPs in light of the fuel crisis?
Of course, there is response from international organizations to bring in food. They are distributing food. But the time itself is not good. It needs a lot of things. It is not only food because this is a rainy season where you are having rain. And yet these people did not receive shelter. These are people who ran away all of a sudden. They have not collected their belongings, things like utensils. So again, you see they are given food but where they are is under trees. So you need shelter. Immediately the shelter becomes an issue. Therefore, still, I am making more appeals. More than just suppling food needs to be done. They need shelter, they need food, they need non-food items, they need medicine because the Twic area is a swampy area; it is a low land; a lot of water. Once three downpours come then there will be a lot of water stagnant, many mosquitoes around. Therefore, the children are going to have a lot of malaria and all that. So health issue is another one coming up. Twic its self is a populated area, plus some other people are coming in. really, you just find it difficult to manage it.
But is there fuel for vehicles delivering food aid to the displaced?
If I say there is nothing in the market, it includes fuel. There is no fuel in this part of the country. We are again hoping that the road from Nimule will be used to bring in goods. However, the main road coming from Juba up to Abyei, first it is in a very bad shape. It cannot serve us effectively. By the time the fuel coming from East Africa comes here, I don’t know it will be three times here the price in Juba. So again, we are appealing to the Minister of Roads and Transport to really look into this road because we should not rely any more on the road coming from the north. Whether it is open or not open, it is not going to be helpful for greater Bhar el Ghazal. So all of us should now consider seriously that the road coming from Juba to Abyei has to be maintained because it is in a very bad shape and now it is rainy season which will close it down. In addition, when these two roads close down, the one of the north and the one coming from Juba, you can even imagine.
We keep getting different displacement figures. How many have been displaced? 45,000? 80,000? 25,000?
I would say 45, 000 is near to the realistic figure.
We have heard of cattle rustling and we have heard SPLA is fighting some militias. What is the state of security in your State? How are you resolving this? How many people have been killed?
The issue of militias coming from those who were fighting in Unity State is really in this state and the report is not yet full in terms of numbers. We were supposed to do more than we are doing.
On my side here I don’t have people really battling that. But we are trying – really may be push back a little bit and really hoping that something will be done to face those militias infiltrating from Unity side who are already clashing with our soldiers.
Many lives have been lost. They are many. They are many lives. You know, every time, you will have five here, ten there, and if you put them together it is a number. We are losing a number of lives – civilians.
Every crisis brings with it some opportunities. Some think that the flock of international aid workers into Warrap will uplift the state’s economy
I do not think so because first of all, we do not have market whereby we could say okay the international community could come in with cash and then purchase things locally. This is the only way that you improve the economy of any place. It is like all we are getting are ready things. If they are bringing food, we don’t know where it is brought. So there is no money dropping here. It is just ready things which we are seeing brought to us. The lives may be rescued by giving those communities the items but not improving the economy of this state.
What can warrap contribute to the resolution of this crisis?
I think in Warrap state we started before anybody else. You know, if it is not because of the status of Abyei in the CPA, Abyei should be one of the counties of Warrap. So it is just part of us; it is part of Warrap state. So anything affecting them affects Warrap state. Any priority Warrap state thinks of in terms of helping Abyei County is in our minds. Before that we even have our own contribution as people of Warrap state towards the people of Abyei before even the occupation of Abyei. So it is there. We are doing what we could do as a State.
Have you received any help from GOSS?
Yes, last week we received a high profile delegation of ministerial committee which was led by the minister of cabinet affairs Kosti Manibe and the minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Interior. So that committee came and we went to where the IDPs of Abyei are and they made pledges. And the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, James Kok, already informed us that are some cars as contribution from the government of southern Sudan with food items, mosquito nets and all that. About 12 cars already; I think they are where the government of Abyei is sitting, that is Agok. So they are doing their best and I think more is on the way in terms of contributing to settlement of Abyei people or helping them.
You are the only female in a high-profile elective office. How does it feel?
I think I don’t feel different. There is nothing I think because I am a woman it is happening in this state or … There is nothing. I just feel that it is just… I don’t know, may be people will judge outside to see there is something making me different. But myself, I am just doing my work just like it is a man doing it.
I don’t see a particular thing that men do and women don’t do or that women do and men don’t do. It is just a leader. I mean style could be different, but it can be different not because I am a woman or I am a man. No. I don’t see it that way.
IN OTHER NEWS
Norwegian Refugee Council ups activities
The Norwegian Refugee Council will expand activities in Warrap, including education, shelter, emergency food security and distribution, and information, counseling and legal assistance, writes JULIE MCKAY
The United Nations estimates that as many as 76,000 fled south, during heavy rains, into Aweil East county in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Mayom county in Unity State and Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal, with the clear majority travelling to Twic county in northern Warrap and beyond.
To date NRC has worked alongside WFP and IOM to verify IDP figures prior to assisting with distribution of both food and Non Food Items (NFIs); IOM has now registered 34,000 IDPs in Warrap alone. Each verified IDP household receives a one month food ration of cereals, pulses, oil and salt from WFP.
NRC has distributed more than 800 SIDA funded NFI emergency kits which consist of buckets, jerry cans, soap, cooking utensils, mosquito nets, blankets, sleeping mats and plastic sheeting. The emergency response team also assisted UN agencies to distribute a further 1,345 NFI kits at the Majak Aher school, which is a five minute drive from the town of Turalei in Twic County, where many IDPs have temporarily located themselves.
North-western Warrap counties are now also home to more than 29,700 returnees from the north who have been arriving since 30 October last year. NRC has also been assisting these returnees recently by distributing 311 emergency shelter kits to the most vulnerable families in Abyei Dau, near the town of Wunrok.
The kits consist of local materials such as wooden poles and grass mats, along with plastic sheeting, and the returnee community assists the families to erect traditional shelters known as tukuls. This week, NRC will expand this activity to assist struggling IDPs with the same kits.
EMERGENCY SHELTERS
Additionally, the NRC emergency response team has also built two communal shelters, one at a site where IDPs had settled and another as a ‘waiting area’ for IDPs accessing a GOAL health clinic.
Many of the displaced are women, children and the elderly who had little to no time to gather any belongings, and unverifiable numbers are still thought to be hiding in hard to reach bush areas, since they avoided main roads as they fled the fighting. Sporadic bursts of heavy rains are deteriorating the muddy roads and give rise to concerns of increased illness, such as respiratory infections and water borne diseases amongst the vulnerable displaced.
Further complicating the response is the recent blockage of fuel and commercial supplies following the closure of several key border crossings. This has reached a critical point and humanitarian agencies are being forced to truck fuel from Juba at inflated prices, to maintain the emergency response efforts.
The protection cluster is coordinating its response through UNHCR and NRC co-leads in Turalei; we view the lack of information dissemination to IDPs as a critical issue to which NRC will be responding. Since many families were forced to leave Abyei during the night, children have become separated from their parents. Subsequently, the focus in Twic County has been two-fold with UNICEF and partners concentrating on family tracing and reunification, whilst Save the Children provides recreational activities and psycho-social support to children; child protection agencies report that many children are withdrawn and seem to be traumatised by their experiences.
