Huffington Post: South Sudan's Peace Unravelling -- The Misery Continues

It suddenly feels like Harold Ramis's famous film, Ground Hog Day. I served with UNICEF in South Sudan from June 2000 to September 2001, bringing humanitarian and life-saving services to a war-torn, drought ridden and impoverished part of Africa which was aptly called 'Operation Life-Line Sudan'. South Sudan was in a secessionist war with the North but there was also a brutal internal war between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), led by John Garang and his Deputy Salva Kiir, (now President of South Sudan), and the Sudan People's Defense Force (SPDF), led by Riak Machar (the former Vice President of South Sudan). The tragedy of that internal war, I witnessed then, appears to have come back to haunt South Sudan, the world's youngest nation. My take on what needs to be done to ensure lasting peace in South Sudan.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/siddharth-chatterjee/south-sudan-unravellingth_b_4507207.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kenneth Frazier the CEO of Merck is the epitome of a humanitarian

Image
Mr Kenneth Frazier-CEO Merck Today is 19 August and it is World Humanitarian Day. At a time when the pursuit of profit seems to override any other corporate mission, Kenya’s fragile, unstable and hard to reach North-Eastern counties is about the last place any company would consider spending any amount of resources.   Consider this. In 2014, one of the North Eastern counties called, Mandera, had a maternal mortality ratio of 3,795 deaths per 100,000 live births, surpassing that of wartime Sierra Leone.  It is inhabited by a nomadic community, riven by internecine conflicts, pockets of extremism and  cross border terrorism .  Widespread illiteracy and cultural practices like female genital mutilation and child marriage ensured women and girls would remain trapped in poverty and desperation. Only the bravest and optimistic of humanitarian agencies maintained a presence, amid shrinking budgets for international development. In 2014, UN agen...
Read more

Reuters: The Global Epidemic of Violence Against Children

Image
The images from the recent gas attack in Syria, where over 80 people, including babies in diapers, can be seen painfully gasping for air before dying, are heartbreaking. These are a graphic illustration of our collective failure to protect children from cruel and inhuman treatment. President Donald Trump correctly called it an “affront to humanity”. The United Nations Secretary General,  Mr Antonio Guterres  has described Syria as one of the worst conflicts of our time. But what happened in Syria was not a one-off. Everyday millions of children around the world are caught up in crises and disasters, many of man’s own making. My take:  http://news.trust.org/item/20170407183304-3k2ea/
Read more

Reuters: From Barriers to Bridges: Transformation of the Ethiopia-Kenya Border Region

Image
Consider this. The communities around the Kenya-Ethiopia border in Moyale-Borona area, have long been associated with internecine violence, extreme poverty, and environmental stress. These have led to disastrous societal consequences, including displacement, criminality and violent extremism. The 2012-2013 intercommunal clashes in Moyale town, claimed the lives of over 200 people, destroyed thousands of properties, including schools and other social amenities. The region has been viewed as largely peripheral, both economically and politically, and therefore attracted limited public and private resources. However, an innovative, comprehensive and integrated cross-border programme initiated by the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments, in partnership with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the United Nations (UN) is changing this narrative. During the recent visit to Kenya by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, President Uhuru Kenyatta speci...
Read more