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sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation
Cooperative
Research Project
Research Sites
Unity, Upper Nile, and Jonglei States
South Kordofan State is located at the border between North and South Sudan and belongs to the marginalised areas of the country. The Nuba, a people consisting of more than 50 different tribal groups, have been discriminated against by all Sudanese governments and were increasingly deprived of their fertile agricultural lands. Many Nuba used to migrate temporarily and partly permanently to the irrigated schemes along the White Nile, to Khartoum, and abroad where most of them were employed as unskilled and temporary workers. Another significant group living in Kordofan are the Baggara, pastoralists who share access to land and water with the Nuba. Since the mid-1980s, resource conflicts mounted between the two groups due to several reasons, among them increased farming activities of the Baggara while Nuba took up livestock-raising, and enhanced government-induced spread of mechanized schemes which rapidly destroyed soil fertility and reduced access to land for the local population. When the government and allied forces started to disposess Nuba and to expel them from the land, many Nuba joined the civil war on the side of SPLA. In the 1992 the government troops and government-armed militias fought a fierce war in the Nuba Mountains in the name of Islamisation. In fact the war was about new land for capitalised production. After discovery of oil fields the area was brutally cleared from civilian population and opened to foreign investors. The SPLA gained control over the mountainous areas whereas the Government of Sudan controlled the rich agricultural lowland and the towns. More than half of the population is scattered in Sudan and abroad, socially detached, deprived of economic opportunities, and without mutual confidence, because the local people had fought one another on both sides of the war. Large numbers are living in resettlement camps without access to land (Photos). Local peace initiatives have started in 2000 and apparently were quite successful in de-militarising the local society. The Nuba Mountains Joint Military Commission, which includes troops and observers of the United Nations and other international organisations, monitor the peace process. Their presence seems to create an increased feeling of security within the population. NGOs and development agencies have started with projects to improve economic, infrastructural, and social service conditions, to rebuild institutions and to support the formation of a civil society (Photos).
Unity, Upper Nile, and Jonglei States are the home of mainly Nuer and Dinka groups. They are partly semipastoralists and cultivators who have adapted to life in difficult swampy lands. In the Jonglei region, there live pastoralists with cattle playing a predominant role in the local social economy. Seasonal activities comprise also crop production, gathering, and fishing (Photos). Conflict flared up in 1983 when one of the first oil fields in Sudan was discovered around Bentiu in the region which is now part of Unity State. The SPLA took up arms against the Government of Sudan, when it started to build a pipeline to Port Sudan, the Red Sea harbour, for oil exports, thus completely neglecting the region with regard to oil revenue allocation. The government allied with fighting factions and armed militias from Arabise northern Sudanese groups against SPLA, thus ethnicising the conflict. The war has led to great insecurity and displacements of the population. Many Nuer from Unity State have fled to Dinka areas in Upper Nile. This renewed traditional conflicts and hostilities between the two peoples. Inter-ethnic conflict was enhanced by a split in the SPLM/A along the Nuer-Dinka divide. Warlords took over control of local administrations in Upper Nile region, and armed self-protection of local resources spread in this area. From 1999 onwards, the conflict has been gradually resolved under strong involvement of NGOs and church groups through a series of local people's conferences and engagement of traditional means. The Jonglei region has another history of tension between local inhabitants and post-colonial Sudanese governments. There a water conflict between the government and local inhabitants broke out due to a policy by which the swamp was to be drained through a huge canal in the 1970s. Besides investors from northern Sudan, who use vast areas of land for irrigated mechanised agriculture, Egypt has a great interest in increasing the accessible amount of Nile water. The local farmers and pastoralists in the Jonglei region are threatened to have to change livelihood systems and to suffer from declining soil fertility. In the 1970s, this conflict was overruled by the fightings between the government of Sudan and SPLA which led to a standstill of canal digging for three decades. After the Peace Agreement, the contradictory interests will be raised again. Now they have to be solved in a way which will prevent further water conflicts in the area. The governance structures which will be established at the local and sub-regional levels are decisive for an outcome which may do justice to the interests of the local population in access to water, crops, and wild vegetation and at the same time, satisfy the regional powers who depend on the Nile waters.
Gambella is one of the nine states of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and borders the Sudan at Upper Nile and Jonglei States. It is home to diverse ethnic groups, indigenous and settlers. The indigenous groups include mainly Nuer and Anuak who share languages, ethno-cultural affinities, economic activities and livelihood systems with their neighbours in South Sudan. They often interact with their kin across the border in the form of both conflict and cooperation. Gambella has experienced the influx of tens of thousands of refugees from Sudan in the last couple of decades which had a strong impact on the already delicate ethnic balance in the region. Traditional resource-driven conflicts between Anuak and Nuer were transformed to ethnic rivalry as the major manifestation. The conflict in Southern Sudan also has militarised the Gambella Region. Due to geographic proximity and as a result of its being the pathway and sanctuary for insurgents in Ethiopia and the Sudan, the population of the region has had easy access to firearms for several decades. This contributed to escalation of the conflicts with attendant mishaps witnessed in Gambella till recently. A further type of conflict has occurred between Anuak and Dinka refugees in refugee camps in Ethiopia. Consequently, Gambella partly became an extended battlefield for inter-ethnic conflict that had its roots in South Sudan. Hence, the impacts of the peace process in Sudan on Gambella/Ethiopia require systematic academic research and analysis that could shed light on possible developments in the years to come.
Three types of research sites in Kenya will be included in the study, these are a refugee camp, settlements in the Rift Valley, and some quarters in Nairobi. The refugee camps in Kenya are managed by UNHCR, local and international NGOs, and the Government of Kenya. Major settlement sites for Sudanese refugees outside the refugee camps include various housing estates in Nairobi, educational institutions throughout the country, and some smaller settlements. Besides the refugees, there is another population of Sudanese living in Nairobi and working with various NGOs, religious dioceses, and organs of the SPLM/A and Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission whose headquarters are in Nairobi. Kakuma Refugee Camp, which hosts about 65,000 Sudanese, will constitute the main study area and entry point, following which intermittent studies will be conducted in the settlements of Kapenguria and Eldoret, and in Nairobi. This is largely because the Sudanese people currently living in Kakuma are the ones most likely to relocate soonest and at the earliest opportunity. It is also the case that they are the ones who must invest in a re-location that will affect their livelihood most dramatically, unlike those living on expatriate terms and therefore likely to relocate to similar environments. Though living in asylum and/or exile, the southern Sudan people in Kenya have maintained traditional as well as formal structures of exercising authority, leadership and influence. The traditional structure was carried from Sudan and has been adapted to the new environments in camps and urban areas to suit their needs. This system consists of councils of elders selected or appointed by the respective ethnic groups to oversee peaceful coexistence, conflict resolution and arbitration, and maintaining observance of the traditional customs and practices. In Kakuma, there exist traditional Bench Courts, “Payam Courts” and the “Appeal Courts” presided over by judges (elders) who are conversant with the Sudanese ethnic cultures and customs. In the refugee camps, they have elected regional and community (ethnic) representatives and sector committee members, with whom UNHCR and NGOs liaise in service provision. Therefore, despite the rebel and refugee status of the Sudanese people in Kenya, they maintain a semblance of “formal governance structures” falling under the umbrella of the SPLM/A, and its relief and development organs. So far, these structures come under the three main clusters or committees constituting the SPLM/A governance structure. These are the local government, the military cluster, and the political cluster. The local government cluster is formed by the structures and offices responsible for running the administrative processes and implementing policies, the military cluster consists of the fighting forces and officials such as Commanders and Generals. The political cluster includes the SPLM/A leadership, politicians and party strategists. These clusters are inextricably interrelated. It is believed that one cannot serve in the civil administration or political cluster without a background in military participation. Southern Sudanese living in the refugee camps respect these structures and most of the adults belong to or are affiliated with one or more of these governance structures. With the newly signed peace agreement, it is expected that different governance structures will be put in place. |
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