Abyei the Safe Haven for Rebuilding Returnees’ Livelihoods

From outside, people view Abyei as a restive region with the communities in and around it ready for combat on the go. Yet within, Abyei is a bustle of activities with people driving deep into activities that makes ends meet in their livelihoods.
Welder Arop Kiir poses in front of a plant in Abyei town. Photo by Okech Francis

By Okech Francis

From outside, people view Abyei as a restive region with the communities in and around it ready for combat on the go.

Yet within, Abyei is a bustle of activities with people driving deep into activities that makes ends meet in their livelihoods.

The town is playing host to thousands of displaced people who fled fighting in Agok area in 2022, and also a transit stopover for south Sudanese returnees alongside refugees fleeing the conflict in neighboring Sudan, and as well the inhabitants, who all have to dig deep for a living.

In the town, it’s always a busy day for people like returnee Arop Kiir who opens his welding plant to business by 6.00 am, the goal being to provide for his daily needs and that of his siblings.

Kiir is only 22 years old but is tasked with feeding three siblings and catering for their other needs including treatment when sick.

Kiir split with his parents when he fled Sudan with his siblings, and suddenly became the little “adult” his brothers and sisters look up to in Abyei.

“I just found I was the one they all look up to in order to eat every day,” he told The Dawn from Abyei town. “When they are sick, it’s up to me to look for their treatment and so I had to begin operating a welding plant and it has really helped me.”

Kiir has put a roof over the children and provides for them well, with an income of 20,000 South Sudanese Pounds that he gets daily.

He has also employed four other youths, all returnees whom he shares the income they get on a daily basis.

According to Kiir, commitment to work has been key in him rebuilding a livelihood shattered by the conflict in Sudan.

“It was very difficult to imagine how I would begin life when I arrived here from Sudan,” Kiir said.

“I have found a way to take care of myself and now the next is to develop the business into a big one,” he said.

Kiir called on people, especially the youth to keep themselves busy in doing work that provides them income if they want to get economic empowerment.

“Rather than sitting idle, I would suggest they engage in these small small activities which can bring them money and slowly, they can develop and also become rich,” he said.

Kiir called on the government to support ventures like his so that they can develop into big manufacturing industries in the country.

Such has been the support by the government in China and individual enterprises like that of Kiir have turned into profitable ventures.

South Sudan can take a leaf from the policy support China provides for such small businesses, which have led them into gaining more favorable policies for transformation and upgrade, a paper, The Transformation from Individual Businesses to Micro Enterprises, said.

“As an outcome of China’s special economic system, the stable transformation of individual businesses to enterprises under proper circumstances will motivate the individual, enterprises and the state proactively and exert profound social significance,” it said.

Like Kiir, Amiir Deng Ajak is also another returnee who fled conflict in Sudan and arrived in Abyei in October 2024.

The 24 year old single parent arrived in the town in the company of his child and had to take to riding a motorcycle taxi and car washing in order to provide for him and the child.

On arrival, Ajak found life difficult and opted to travel to Juba but due to lack of means of travelling, he resorted into car washing.

“It was magical because I realized that with the dust in Abyei, I could get as many cars to wash as I can,” Ajak told The Dawn.

“I have put up a shelter in the compound of a relative and I am taking care of my child very well,” he said.

Ajak earns much more than a government servant, putting together about 40,000 SSP from both his car washing company and the motorcycle taxi which he rides.

“I have a team of eight youths which I have employed and together we have got a good source of money to keep us going,” he said.

“I no longer think of going to Juba because I feel it is here in Abyei where I can easily become rich.”

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