Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:31:11 +0100
South Sudanese refugees face flooding and difficult dynamics in Ethiopia
Amid fears of renewed conflict in South Sudan, ethnic rivalries are
complicating efforts to move refugees from flooded camps
* William Davison <http://www.theguardian.com/profile/william-davison>
* Thursday 30 October 2014 12.33 GMT
For the war refugees who have escaped ransacked South Sudanese towns and
impoverished villages, and for the aid workers assisting them in the western
Ethiopian region of Gambella, now is a time for waiting.
Mary Ban, 26, has been stuck in a camp on the Ethiopian border during the
rainy season, sleeping in a large communal tent with her four children.
They’ve got no mosquito nets or sheets, and she’s not happy with the grain
distributed by the UN as it causes diarrhoea. But because the Tierkedi and
Kule camps are full, and Leitchuor camp
<http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/unhcr-and-partners-distribute-urgently
-needed-aid-flooded-camps-ethiopia> flooded, she will have to remain in
Pagak for a while.
“I am waiting to be relocated,” she says, pausing from bundling firewood to
sell. “We will be here until we [are] taken to the place we need.”
The uncertainty in the refugee operation is twofold. Though a difficult
situation is under control for now,
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/27/south-sudan-fighting-season>
many believe heavy fighting will resume in South Sudan once roads dry up,
leading to a new surge of tens of thousands of refugees. Moreover,
Ethiopia’s government is struggling to find suitable locations for flooded
refugees and potential new arrivals that do not disturb volatile local
political dynamics.
Ban, an ethnic Nuer from Mathiang in Upper Nile state, has been offered
space at a camp along with 3,000 other people at Pagak. Only 12 accepted.
That is because the camp is more than 250 miles away, in the south of
Gambella – far from the Nuer strongholds in the region and close to their
ethnic rivals, the Dinka.
“We need to be in Kule, but we don’t want another area. We don’t like Dima,
as it’s near to the Dinka side. Dinka came to Mathiang and killed a lot of
people; children, women and old people,” she said.
Ban is one of almost 200,000 primarily Nuer refugees who have ended up in
Ethiopia since December 2013, when attempts by Kiir to arrest political
rivals for coup plotting – including his Nuer former deputy, Riek Machar –
prompted commanders to rebel. The ensuing clashes have claimed thousands of
lives and
<http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/South_Sudan_Crisis
_Situation_Report_59_as_of_23_October1.pdf> displaced nearly 2 million
people (pdf).
Ceasefire deals have been signed in Addis Ababa, but in reality it is the
rainy season that has discouraged the movement of potential refugees and
armed groups. The result has been a huge reduction in people crossing the
border, despite severe food shortages inside South Sudan.
Aid organisations nonetheless remain alert: fading rains could lead to
renewed fighting, causing a surge comparable to the first few months of the
crisis, when thousands a day were arriving.
“That’s why humanitarian agencies are working with a 100,000-extra influx in
the latest months of the year,” explains Dennis Solberg Kjeldsen, regional
operations coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies. “So right now there’s a little bit of a lull … but we’re
quite sure we’re going to need the resources, we’re going to need funding.”
Funds are in heavy demand because of the exceptional number of emergencies
occurring globally, not least the Ebola outbreak. “I don’t want to
underestimate or downplay the threat of Ebola, but Ebola has taken an
enormous amount of attention away from ongoing emergencies on the
continent,” he said. The UN refugee agency has received
<http://data.unhcr.org/SouthSudan/documents.php?page=1&view=grid> 37% of the
requested $567m (£355m) needed to deal with the 2 million displaced inside
and outside South Sudan.
Aid workers are also waiting for Ethiopia’s federal and regional governments
to settle on an alternative to the existing Okugu camp near Dima.
Aside from the refugees’ fears regarding the Dinka,
<http://portal.svt.ntnu.no/sites/ices16/Proceedings/Volume%202/Dereje%20Feyi
ssa%20-%20A%20National%20Perspective%20on%20the%20Conflict%20in%20Gambella.p
df> there are tensions in Gambella (pdf) between the Nuer and the Anuak
people, another Nilotic ethnicity, which complicate the decision. Although
Gambella is one of Ethiopia’s most sparsely populated areas, access to its
plentiful land and water is contested. Because of its fertility, the federal
government has
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-09/ethiopia-makes-4-million-hectares-
of-land-available-to-investors.html> earmarked the state for commercial
agriculture.
The Anuak, who consider themselves the original inhabitants of the area,
feel encroached upon by the now more populous Nuer, and also threatened by
foreign and highland farming investors. This year’s influx of Nuer – equal
to 60% of Gambella’s 2007 official population of 307,000 – is only the
latest instalment in a century-old trend. The rate of arrival has increased
in the five decades since the southern Sudanese began their struggle against
Khartoum.
Anuak discontent manifests itself in sporadic violent clashes, most recently
with highlanders. In 2012, Anuak rebels killed workers at a prominent rice
farm, leading to
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/28/ethiopia-army-commits-torture-rape>
reprisals by security forces. A scuffle between schoolchildren this month
led to a series of tit-for-tat killings and mob violence between Anuak and
highland communities in Abobo and Gambella towns, according to Anuak elders
and local security sources. The scars of a 2003 bout of violence – when,
<http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/ethiopia0305/4.htm> according to Human
Rights Watch, soldiers and militias targeted Anuak civilians after acts of
banditry – have barely healed. Anuak people fear a repeat of what some call
a massacre.
There is also resentment at the arrivals from the west. One of the Anuak
elders, Ochodo Obang, sees all Nuer settlers as foreign colonisers. “These
people are like the highlanders; they want to take our land. We are the
owners of the land.
“We don’t want them to be here at all. It’s not a question of do we put them
here or there.”
The problem for officials is how to accommodate tens (and possibly hundreds)
of thousands more Nuer in the next few months without stoking disputes. The
dry and stable Kule and Tierkedi camps that house about 100,000 people are
in former Anuak areas, Ochodo says. The ill-fated government decision to
choose Leitchuor camp – located in a floodplain, it is now largely submerged
– resulted from a lack of good options.
“There’s a lot of difficult issues around it, not least the ethnic
dimensions,” said Kjeldsen of the government’s choice. “We have to be
careful we don’t exacerbate any tension.”
South Sudan Refugees wade through flood waters at Leitchuor camp in
Gambella, Ethiopia. Built on a floodplain, the camp is now largely
submerged. Photograph: Will Davison
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)