The Root Causes of War in South Sudan, where are our Votes?

By Dr. Laura Nunu, 29th January 2020, UK

The root causes of war in South Sudan, where are our votes?

After five decades of war, suffering and instability, South Sudan seceded from Sudan in January 9, 2011. However, after only two years of independence, it was back in war with itself with the most brutal genocide and human rights atrocity the world had seen.”Since the conflict started in December 2013, more than 4 million people have fled their homes, with 2.47 million taking refuge in neighboring countries. Close to 200,000 people are living in six UN “protection of civilians” sites across the country. Seven million people need humanitarian assistance, most of whom faced acute food shortages.(South Sudan, human right watch 2019)”

The questions South Sudanese people must be asking in regards to the root causes of the war are: where is our vote? Where is the dream country splm/a promised us? Where are the towns that were suppose to replace our villages? Where is splm/a, the party we entrusted with our votes, why our country is being hijacked? Who are those responsible for the mess we are in now?

These are fundemental questions, in my opinion, are critical to addressing the roots causes of the war in our country. Without answering these questions satisfactorily and bringing to justice every single preprator who inflicted any injustices and human rights abuses to our people, we are wasting our time and extending the current war to the future generations. Why am I saying this? It is because we know ourselves and we know how much the culture of revenge has contributed to this war.

As such, it is time to bring justice by doing the right things in the right ways. So that we can start to build our lives and build a country we can finally call a home. We know how and why the previous agreements were disowned and betrayed and finally failed to be implemented. This time around, we must do the right things for the sake of our people, if we really do love them and are willing to sacrifice for them as we claim. This means, every single mecahanism and tools that are needed for a genuine peace to prevail in South Sudan must be put into place and adopted to our specific local context to address the above questions effectively.

However, the above questions cannot be treated in isolations without follow up questions like: What kind of a country do we want and how can we bring it about? In other words, how can we build a country that we can finaly, call a home? (Questions like: how does it look like, how is life like in it and what do we need to do as individuals, as well as  South Sudanese people to bring it into our existence?)

These are the two main faces of nation building process we need to create a new South Sudan starting from the process of peace, justice, accountability, reconciliations and finally, rebuilding new South Sudan. Nothing less, nothing more.

We, in NADAFA for an alternative government are saying that, there is not a government, in the world’s standard, in South Sudan. The geographical area called South Sudan is now being ruled by few tribal elites (JCE) who turned our voted country into their personal business. They are using tribal tools to cling to power at all cost. Splm/a has failed us miserably. Because of their ego and greed for power, they turned our dream country into the worst nightmare bloodbath place on earth, which is worst than Sudan from which we seceded. They must be held accountable for letting the people of South Sudan down, period.

We all agree to the fact that Federalism is a form of government that suits the diverse nature of our society. However, we in NADAFA believe that Federalism that will work in South Sudan is one based on the former three provinces of Upper Nile, Equatoria and Bahr al Ghazal, and one which shares power equally (one third each) between the peoples in these founding regions of today’s South Sudan.

May God bless you and bless South Sudan, Amen!