South Sudan, the world’s newest nation and one of the poorest countries in Africa, continues to benefit from support from Ireland’s development and humanitarian funding.
In 2013, Ireland provided €4m in humanitarian funding to South Sudan, with €2.5m dispersed through the United Nations and €1.5m through NGO partners Goal, MSF, World Vision and Trócaire.
This funding is necessary as persisting unrest in South Sudan has left thousands dead and some 900,000 displaced, with tens of thousands crammed into UN bases in fear for their lives in a country that desperately needs international support, especially since the breakdown of peace talks.
The violence follows the power struggle between South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar, whom Kiir removed from office earlier this year.
Since independence, South Sudan has suffered conflict, border disputes and fighting between rivals and an attempted coup in the capital Juba last December.
Peace talks in neighbouring Ethiopia has been interrupted because of fierce fighting over the key oil hub of Malaki, despite a ceasefire agreement signed on 23 January this year.
The current crisis in South Sudan has to be considered in the context of the country’s history. The peace agreement and division of Sudan into north and south did not solve the problems of conflict that has plagued the country as a fragmented entity since the days of its colonial past.
Sudan has one of the oldest civilisations in history, has suffered both British and French colonial rule, and is divided both geographically by the river Nile, the world’s longest river, and politically between the mainly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south.
The civil war in Sudan cost as many as four million lives – the conflict in the western province of Darfur more than 300,000 alone – and despite the efforts of the international community, these conflicts have not been settled.
No change since 1990
The abuse of human rights and instability of the country has not fundamentally changed since my first visit to Sudan in 1990 as part of a human rights mission on behalf of the Joint EU/ACP Parliamentary Assembly, which links the member states of the EU with the countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.
Our delegation, which was led by former Belgian Prime Minister Leo Tindemans,, met President Omar Al Bashir soon after his election at the age of 45 after the coup of June 1989.
Although European election observers claimed the elections were not up to international standards, it was regarded that Sudan had made some progress towards ending the conflict between the Arab north and the Christian south. In the intervening years, however President Bashir became the first head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The mission was difficult and rigidly controlled by our hosts, we had to hold meetings under trees in the open air in order to shake off our minders. Despite a long flight in a light plane to Darfur, we were refused the opportunity we had been promised to visit a local prison.
When I think about that visit, I can only view the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 – which was not comprehensive, was about the north and south alone and did not deal with Darfur and other conflicts – as a wasted opportunity.
The words that today come to mind when South Sudan is mentioned are ‘turmoil’, ‘crisis’ and ‘on the brink’. Many claim that South Sudan has swapped Khartoum for Juba. The African Union seems embarrassed about what has happened in South Sudan, and it has been said that there should have been a stronger EU presence in the country.
The Irish Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello, has given a clear commitment of continued Irish support for South Sudan and has praised those who work on the ground in the country in the UN or NGOs as Ireland’s finest ambassadors. Let’s hope these efforts can bear some fruit.
Michael McGowan is a former MEP and President of the Development Committee of the European Parliament.
