Britain is one of the world’s oldest democracies; my country, South Sudan, is the world’s youngest nation. In both, December is going to be a significant month.
You probably don’t need reminding that Britain will be going to the polls, but for us, this month marks six years since civil war broke out. If you think your politicians are at each other’s throats, consider this: in South Sudan, the same two leaders and their supporters have been in bloody conflict virtually since the day we gained independence in 2011.
President Salva Kiir, whose black cowboy hat is as much a trademark as Boris Johnson’s blond mop of hair, took office with Riek Machar as his deputy, but they soon fell out. Since 2013 the country has been racked by their armed struggle for power. The death toll stands at around 400,000, and the economy has been ruined.
Four million South Sudanese have been displaced, and a further five million are living without food and shelter. That’s three quarters of the population. According to the World Bank, only one in eight people have access to clean water and adequate sanitation, and South Sudan has one of the world’s highest rates of women dying in childbirth.
Britain – which used to govern this territory, don’t forget – has worked with international partners and South Sudan’s neighbours to persuade the country’s rival leaders to cease fighting and work together. In an incredible gesture of humility and reconciliation, Pope Francis even kissed the two men’s feet when they visited the Vatican. A “revitalised” peace agreement, signed in September last year, has led to a significant reduction in violence, but a November 12 deadline to set up a new unity government has been pushed back 100 days into next year.
This is the third time Salva Kiir and Riek Machar have been pressed into a deal to share power. Both the two previous agreements collapsed in bloodshed, with catastrophic consequences for every South Sudanese, and there is a serious risk that it could happen again. The tragedy is that it does not have to be this way.
I see this 100-day pause as an opportunity, a period of grace, to ensure that there is a true and binding commitment to peace. It is easy to put ink to paper when signing a peace agreement; the true test is the hard work ahead in building sustainable peace for the people, who have suffered enough. Though our poverty is often portrayed in your media as overwhelming and insurmountable, South Sudan could feed itself. It has fertile soil, watered by the Nile. But if we are to develop, we need peace and security above all, and that requires the support of the international community.
But, as Church, we also know that the future peace of our beloved country also rests with our efforts to foster peace-building and reconciliation at the grassroots – with support from charities like CAFOD and Trocaire we are able to work with bereaved, traumatised communities.
In Western Equatoria, a joint mission by the Interfaith Council for Peace Initiative, (I’m the Chair), brokered peace with several rebel groups, as a result children and women were released. The region is seeing new ways of handling conflict locally, guaranteeing peace and creating the right conditions for sustainable development initiatives.
Last week western leaders gathered in Britain to mark the 70th anniversary of Nato mainly discussing peace and security in their own part of the world, but we are all interconnected. The truth is that without international pressure, South Sudan has no chance of forming a unity government, and the violence will continue.
Despite all the other issues your country faces, be it Brexit, terrorism or cyber-attacks, I hope that Britain and its allies will not forget my country, and the support it needs.
Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala is the Catholic Bishop of Tombura-Yambio. He was involved in the peace process in Addis Ababa (2014) and is head of the Interfaith Council for Peace in Western Equatoria State.
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