The Road to Peacebuilding and Development in Longechuk County, South Sudan
In the past seven years, communities all across South Sudan suffered from horrific and frequent acts of violence and human rights abuses because of the fighting that broke out in mid-December 2013. Due to the war, civilians were forced to experience widespread displacement and a worsening humanitarian crisis, as they feared returning to their homes. Thousands of civilians fled to designated internal displaced camps and neighboring countries to seek refuge. Since then, South Sudan has struggled to achieve peace.
In May 2014, Longechuk County was greatly affected by attacks that resulted in greater losses of human lives, a huge influx of internally displaced persons, refugees in Ethiopia, and losses of livestock, personal properties across the communities of Longechuk. Since the attacks in 2014, communities in Longechuk County have been known as ghost towns. The newly signed peace agreement and implementation in South Sudan and the newly appointed MPs and Longechuk County commissioner are great news for the people of Longechuk. While the people of Longechuk County and their leaders celebrate, they must also start building back their county and start the conversation around peacebuilding across the neighboring counties in the state of Upper Nile.
It is easier for leaders and committed community members to say they will work on normalcy and tranquility because saying is easier than done. As a member of the Longechuk Community, I see a few issues where the county commissioner can start working on including access to locations to and within Longechuk; welcoming back residences from IDP camps and refugee camps; encouraging business to be rebuild after being looted during attacks; access to clean water and restoring the health of citizens; reopening of schools across all payams and bomas.
The county lacks accessibility during the rainy seasons, forcing people to be cut off from roads connected to counties within the state of Upper Nile and Gambella Region in the neighboring country, Ethiopia. Additionally, lack of trust between communities in the Upper Nile state prevents traders and businesspersons to travel to Longechuk, which results in limited access to food and medical supplies. Elected MPs and the commission of Longechuk must advocate for the Government of South Sudan and Upper Nile to start building roads within Longechuk.
The war has caused most of the water systems that provided safe drinking water across the county to be in ruins. Additionally, rival forces destroyed pipes and generators and dismantled water tanks to limit access to water and confine the availability of the precious commodity to areas from where they could easily see residents and enemy soldiers drawing it. This caused an imminent increase of diarrheal diseases due to the consumption of raw water from swamps and lack of toilets at the dwellings and in the temporal settlements for IDPs. Some people are using the rainwaters for drinking, washing, and bathing. To reduce this gap, leaders must work toward repairing water points to provide safe drinking water to avoid waterborne diseases.
My last suggestion is the restoration of education facilities. During the war, schools across the county were looted, burnt down, and some are still being occupied by soldiers. In other cases, the displaced people are hosted in school buildings. This forces schools to shut down, resulting in children lack behind in the national examination. A good place to start is for schools to clear of soldiers and IDPs, or for the leaders to provide alternative safe learning spaces for children across the county.
Longechuk County is one of the oil-producing counties in the Upper Nile state counties and is blessed with the most natural resources including wildlife, swamps, mountains, fishes, forests, and hot spring waters. I have faith that the leaders coming out of the latest peace agreement and appointments by the Government of South Sudan will bring peace and development to Longechuk County.
