South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Simon Deng
The days were dark as calamities fell upon the people of Eastern Equatoria, stalking them in their homes, farmlands, on the roads and cattle camps, and Magdalena Dudu Loren recalls vividly those days when the State was at conflict.
After crisis broke out in South Sudan in 2013, common were multiple problems across the country, leading to deaths, displacements and disunity among the people.
In 2023, with tension still simmering, the 69-year-old Dudu teamed up with other women, under the Root of Generation (ROG), a national non-governmental organization, to work towards pacifying the land.
“It was a bad moment that time when our people were killed in cattle camps, or in farm lands. “The church had tried to make peace but it failed. The government also tried peace, the violence reduced for a while but then started again,” the 69 year old lady who hails from Chukudum of Budi County told The Dawn in an interview.
“We moved on to initiate dialogue. We did three days dialogue in Kikila. We brought together women from Logire and women from Lokonge. We talked to the youths not to continue with cattle raiding and rampant killing, and now the situation is peaceful,” Loren said.
The Executive Director for Root of Generation (ROG), Dorong Grace said her organization is working to mitigate conflict in remote part of Eastern Equatoria region from the gender lens.
“Women took up this initiative and moved within the communities, consulting with youth warriors, elders and women on possible ways of resolving conflicts,” Grace told The Dawn.
“We tried to look at an angle of engaging communities massively from the gender lens, actually using women. We did a lot of training with women on peace and security and how women can be part of peace building in the community,” she said.
“So, they went engaging the communities, reaching out to the warriors and the youths, using their voices as mothers to convince the youths to gather for dialogue and listen to their voices.”
South Sudan is currently enjoying peace created by a 2018 peace agreement currently being implemented in the country. That agreement greatly promotes ethnic unity which were seen to have fragmented at the onset of the crisis.
When ethnicities unite, a countries development rises by leaps, as witnessed by what china has gone through in the last 100 years were it has made great achievements, exploring a path of modernization distinct from that of the West and its successful practice in promoting ethnic unity has attracted worldwide attention, according to this article, “Insights | Chinese modernization highlights ethnic unity, global shared development and prosperity, published on ECNS wire. It says ethnic conflicts remain a major cause of many tensions, and that China’s ethnic policies of featuring harmony and unity provide valuable lessons for other multi-ethnic countries, including South Sudan.
In Eastern Equatoria, Grace said her organization has mitigated different conflict situations including cattle raiding, revenge killings and road ambushes in Eastern Equatoria States’ regions of Kapoeta, Budi and Ikwotos.
“We know that there is a lot of conflict in this region, especially cattle raiding, revenge killings, road ambushes and many others. These kind of conflicts hinder humanitarian access to the people affected, and this increases famine because people do not cultivate,” she said.
“When communities are in peace, then there is development, no vulnerability because people can produce their own food, and there is free access and free movement of humanitarian aid.”
According to Loren, their plea to the youths who were heavily involved in the conflicts agreed for dialogue.
“We have been holding talks with the youths in the bushes. We move behind them. The talks are not held in towns because they stay in the bushes,” Loren said.
“Our talks with the youths have brought calm to the area with no more killing, no more cattle raiding and our people are moving freely, they are working on their farms without fear.”
Grace for her part again, Grace said South Sudanese are tired of conflict and every community dreams of having a peace nation.
“To achieve peace, the communities need to really accept that we need to live in peace, communities need not to be manipulated, they need to stand alone and say we want to be in peace,” Grace said.
“When there is peace in the country, the entire country will now focus on development,” she said.
“For example, people can go into the farm and cultivate. South Sudan will be economically stable because they can produce their own food and also we will have access, people will be able to access the most needed goods,” Grace said.
“We can achieve a lot as a country when we are in peace.”
