Little to celebrate year after Sudan peace
Jan 9, 2006 (NAIROBI) — One year after a landmark peace agreement ending the 21-year war between the north and south, millions of Sudanese continue to live in fear of violence and haveyet to feel the benefits of peace, warned six international agencies working in Sudan.
“The peace agreement signed a year ago was a momentous achievement,” said Sorcha O’Callaghan, spokesperson for a coalition of international aid agencies in a statement issued hereon Monday.
“But with conflict still raging in Darfur and insecurity in thesouth and east of the country, many Sudanese have little to celebrate. The challenge this year is to make sure that people of Sudan really feel the benefits of peace,” the spokesperson said.
The aid agencies said that communities in the south still lack food and water, despite pledges made by donors last year to provide 4.5 billion U.S. dollars.
However, some 500,000 southern Sudanese are expected to return home this year through voluntary repatriation organized by the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
The coalition urged donors to fulfill the pledges they made in Norway last April, saying that unless the hopes and needs of Sudan’s people are met, the time and effort spent in negotiating the peace deal agreed will be squandered.
In April 2005 at an international donor conference in Oslo, 4.5billion dollars was pledged to support the development of Sudan, but the aid agencies say delays have meant that little has reachedthe struggling communities who are trying to rebuild their lives.
“Before the peace agreement … we knew nothing about life but were waiting only to see death. But when peace prevailed, life is now returning to normal. We have found life,” said a man from the Monythany tribe in south Sudan as part of an initiative by the agencies to gather perspectives on peace from communities in northand south Sudan.
“We feel we are not living in freedom because we are living in poverty. We rely on relief supply outside Sudan and not on what our land produces. One cannot claim freedom without self-reliance and self-sustainability,” said a group of Dinka women.
The relief agencies said as the thousands of people who fled during the fighting begin to return to their homes, they will place additional strain on these fragile communities, which could lead to further insecurity.
“Significant work remains to prepare south Sudan for the masseswho will return home,” they said.
“Settlement was difficult, nevertheless this is our motherland and home … we found nothing during our arrival. Relief got finished before we arrived. We thought that we were neglected but we realized later that they were lacking rations to offer to us,” said a group of women who have returned home to south Sudan.
The aid groups called on the international community to actively support the implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement, as well as peace processes in Darfur and east Sudan, asthe Sudanese people deserve a just and sustainable peace after so many years of suffering.
On January 9, 2005, the Sudanese government and the southern rebels signed a peace deal that put an end to a war that lasted 21years, killed 1.5 million people and displaced four million others.
(Xinhua/ST)