South Sudan

Lord Chidgey Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Chidgey (LD)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Curry, on securing this debate on the crisis in South Sudan. I also congratulate the noble Earl on his contribution and the breadth of knowledge with which he has informed this debate—that goes for the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, as well.

I had the opportunity to visit the southern part of Sudan shortly before independence was declared in Juba in July 2011. The parliamentary delegation of which I was a part visited Juba and Khartoum, meeting the soon-to-be President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, and his staff, and members of President Bashir’s Cabinet in Khartoum.

Noble Lords will recall that, at that time, just prior to the referendum on South Sudan’s independence, there was a massive relocation of population from north to south. Sudanese families were uprooted from the urban environment around Khartoum and transported to the mostly rural areas in the south. Flotillas of Nile barges were deployed to ship these new refugees down to Juba, with around 1,000 people on each barge. It was a moving experience to hear so many people singing together, announcing their impending arrival before each barge came into view, unaware of what awaited them.

Juba then was, and by all accounts still is, a bankrupt and broken city. It had no formal commercial trading base. There are no banks—just a simple cash economy. Our delegation’s organiser had to carry around a cash float sufficient to meet all our travel and accommodation costs in a Tesco plastic bag—I do not know how many thousands of dollars she carried; I did not like to ask—until we found a secure cupboard which relieved the responsibility, courtesy of the UK mission.

The urbanised refugee families from the north were confronted with the prospect of becoming tenant smallholder farmers. They were provided with hand implements, allocated a patch of land and invited to get on with it. The plight of children orphaned by the upheaval was dreadful.

Our delegation was taken to a temporary childcare centre, funded and run by volunteers. They cared for the children they found abandoned in the Juba city markets. With there not being enough money to provide accommodation, the children had to be returned to the market each night and take their chances sleeping under the stalls. By the time the girls were 11, they were coerced into prostitution in the market brothels. Before the boys reached 11, they had generally disappeared.

As if this was not enough for an impoverished, destitute population to cope with, in a country with barely any infrastructure, no civil administration and no formal governance, in 2013—as noble Lords have mentioned—it was plunged into civil war. It was a vicious civil war initiated by leaders with no concern for the fate of the people whom they professed to lead.

Just this week, yet another peace agreement was signed. South Sudan’s UN ambassador, Akuei Bona Malwal, said that the declaration included other warring parties and that they had all pledged to work together to bring peace to the country. I must thank his excellency the ambassador for South Sudan, who sent me a copy of the agreement via the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, which is encouraging. Unfortunately, during the photocopying process, I believe that they have managed to miss out one of the pages which is probably the most important. There we are: it is in my hand; we have the agreement.

Security Council members have welcomed this sign of progress after more than four years of a bloody conflict that has seen thousands killed and more than 4 million displaced from their homes or made refugees. The fighting has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, with more than 7 million South Sudanese requiring humanitarian assistance this year.

The radio station Voice of America, in Washington, reported that Security Council member, Equatorial Guinea’s UN ambassador, Job Obiang Esono Mbengono, had said that the peace declaration was a step on the right path but they were cautious when it came to optimism, since it was not the first time that the parties had reached agreements and not respected them.

The Ethiopian envoy Tekeda Alemu said that the coming days will be critical and that what matters now is for the parties to honour their commitment and implement the ceasefire, but what are the prospects of it lasting? We have already heard this afternoon that the ceasefire has been broken. One far-sighted commentator said that this civil war will last until both sides come to the conclusion that neither side can win.

In the meantime, the people of South Sudan continue to suffer. In the meantime, 7.5 million people need humanitarian assistance, 6 million people—half the population—are severely food-insecure, 1.8 million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, making Bidi in Uganda the world’s largest refugee camp, and there are at least 4.2 million IDPs. There are outbreaks of cholera, kala-azar and measles, and during six months of 2016 there were 2 million cases of malaria alone. Three-quarters of school-aged girls are not in school, an adolescent girl is three times more likely to die in childbirth than to complete primary school, and one in five girls among displaced communities has experienced rape or sexual assault since the conflict started.

Despite the signing of the cessation of hostilities agreement, conflict has intensified in parts of Unity and Central Equatoria states. Government forces are seeking to dislodge opposition forces ahead of the rainy season. On 31 May, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2418, renewing the sanctions regime until 15 July, by which time the fighting should have stopped and the parties should have come to a viable agreement. If they have not, the Security Council will consider applying targeted sanctions to six identifiable individuals. Nevertheless, will the Government’s approach to conflict resolution focus not solely on the high-level peace process but look at the root causes? Will the Government strongly and publicly support humanitarian responses to refugees in Sudan and neighbouring countries? Will they acknowledge that more should be done to ensure that South Sudan leaders holding British citizenship are held accountable in an investigation into arms deals between a UK company and South Sudan? Will they support Uganda in providing a safe haven for Sudanese refugees, given that only 21% of the UNHCR’s call for some $674 million in 2017 has been funded?