07/29/2005
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Coming by plane to Rumbek, South Sudan, from Lokichoggio in Kenya, rare trees
and bushes point the red earth, and in the arid landscape groupings of huts and
houses made of bricks, wood and iron roofs appear.
The Sudanese war between North and South seems to be finished, and the Peace
Comprehensive Agreement was singed on the 9th January 2005 by representatives
of the two warring parties, Ali Othman Taha, the GOS (Government of Sudan) Vice
President, and John Garang de Mabior, Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement, which used to be the main southern opposition party and has now the
duty to search for an alliance with the other several southern groups and form
the new Government of South Sudan (GOSS). The SPLA, Sudan People’s Liberation
Army, is its military wing.
Rumbek represents the future for the whole South, the place where infrastructures,
investments and new activities will start before everywhere else in the region
and where the dividends of this peace will probably reach earlier the local people.
UN agencies like WFP and UNICEF are already based in Rumbek and other NGOs and
institutions will come in the near future, with equipment, people and money.
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After 21 years of civil war, Rumbek can begin its development
Written for PeaceReporter by
Elena Rossi
Elena Rossi
Coming by plane to Rumbek, South Sudan, from Lokichoggio in Kenya, rare trees
and bushes point the red earth, and in the arid landscape groupings of huts and
houses made of bricks, wood and iron roofs appear.The airport in Rumbek is little more than a fenced dirt airstrip close to a small
building that serves as customs barrier and some sheds around, where SPLM pass
permits and passports are checked. The city is under the SPLM control since 1997
and the light blue paper authorizing to come into South Sudan is indispensable.
Without it foreigners cannot pass and are forced to wait for the next flight back,
no matter what organizations they are working for.
The airport is where all the people from Rumbek gather when someone important
is supposed to come by plane to the small town, informed by autos with megaphones
going in the streets and announcing the “special arrivals” many hours early, so
that the airport gets more and more crowded since the morning even though the
flight will come only in the evening. The new comer could be a representative
of a foreign government or a high rank SPLM/A member, but whoever important is
coming, it is possible to feel it through the whole city, which gets busy and
animated. And lately the city has been often busier than usual.
Just near the airport two crashed airplanes have been left just on the right
side of the street, signs of the difficulties that sometimes landing airplanes
have in finding the airstrip. They are just two of the many “ruins” in the town.
There are no paved roads and the deep potholes in the streets allow only big
off-road vehicles to pass.
Marks of the civil war experienced are everywhere in the city, and evidences
of fighting between GOS and SPLA troops are memories of the recent past of the
South: brick buildings destroyed with no more roof, old tanks and rusted pieces
of cars are scattered along the village.
People wearing military uniforms are many, and in the main place it is possible
to see boys playing football as well as groups of young uniformed men training
and holding arms.
The Sudanese war between North and South seems to be finished, and the Peace
Comprehensive Agreement was singed on the 9th January 2005 by representatives
of the two warring parties, Ali Othman Taha, the GOS (Government of Sudan) Vice
President, and John Garang de Mabior, Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement, which used to be the main southern opposition party and has now the
duty to search for an alliance with the other several southern groups and form
the new Government of South Sudan (GOSS). The SPLA, Sudan People’s Liberation
Army, is its military wing.Rumbek is one of the major cities in the South of Sudan, and the capital of the
Bahr el Ghazal region. The official southern capital, Juba, located in the Bahr
al Jabal region, is still now an enclave of the northern GOS and its militias
and access to SPLM people as well as humanitarian agencies is not granted.
Therefore Rumbek is now the main magnet for people and activities concerning
the South after the signing of the CPA 2005. The construction of the southern
region will start from here; all the main decisions concerning the creation of
the southern government, its relation with UN agencies and other international
and local NGOs operating in the South together with the role they will play from
the achievement of the peace will be taken from here, and this process has already
started.
The South Sudanese health sector for instance will be settled here, until the
access to Juba will be possible, “Rumbek will be the provisional capital of the
Ministry of Health at the federal level, until we will get direct access to Juba,
according to what the SPLM leadership will tell us. Now we are here in Rumbek”,
said a representative of the Secretariat of Health, the body that will become
the South Sudan Ministry of Health in the future.
Rumbek represents the future for the whole South, the place where infrastructures,
investments and new activities will start before everywhere else in the region
and where the dividends of this peace will probably reach earlier the local people.
UN agencies like WFP and UNICEF are already based in Rumbek and other NGOs and
institutions will come in the near future, with equipment, people and money. Sudanese people are feeling this change, and the increasing new international
attention to this town makes them believe that things will actually change.
Gabriel, a 26 South Sudanese met in Rumbek, affirmed his strong trust in the
possibility of a change: “The SPLM has the power now, things will change, they
know how much we suffered and they will make the situation better. They will have
a lot of money, they will build roads, hospitals, and also more people from abroad
will come to help”.
People’s expectations are getting higher and higher, and SPLM characters together
with international agencies have to comply with it. Internal pressures are the
more difficult to deal with, because they come from people that are asking just
what they deserve, that is, a peaceful and secure future, as the one they could
not enjoy in the last twenty years. There is a lot of good will, but things will
not improve overnight.
Local people look with curiosity new foreign comers and children smile at them.
With all those eyes looking at me, I often felt out of place.
Main features of the town are bicycles, the most common means of transportation
local people use, and carts hauled by big oxen, with huge and bended horns, making
them look as powerful as dangerous, most of all seeing one of them carrying an
old flat tire pierced into its horn. The only cars around belong to humanitarian
organizations working there, with foreign flags drawn on their side or waving
from the radiator.
Children and women with colorful dresses are gathered around water pumps and
wells and tall men wearing long tunics and cotton caps walk in the streets with
sticks in their hands. Water and electricity are an actual luxury here, that only
international agencies can afford.
The majority of people here are Dinkas, and the deep scars they have on the forehead
characterize them. The shape of these traditional scars distinguishes people from
one tribal group to people belonging to other groups; they are the results of
initiation rites, more common in the past than now: without them people cannot
live inside the community, with them they cannot live in other tribal groups.
Like in many other African populations, the tribal membership cannot be hidden
nor cancelled.
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