Ex-combatants of Western Equatoria train small business skills
September 20, 2010 (YAMBIO) — Ten days training on Small Business Management (SBM) for the ex-combatants commenced in Yambio, Western Equatoria State on Monday September 20, 2010 in the Young Women Christian Association main hall.
Southern Sudan’s former rebel soldiers and their families continue to return in large numbers to their homelands but few of them have found work and many complain about the lack of business opportunities available to them.
In an attempt to reduce dependence and unemployment among the ex-combatants, southern Sudan’s Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) program, funded by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through BRAC bank, a Bangladesh based microfinance firm, has set a program to reduce poverty among southern Sudan’s ex-combatants.
When the north-south Sudan civil war ended in January 2005, many ex-combatants had been soldiers for four years, and had to begin the difficult process of settling into a different life with their families in various towns in WES.
Despite their traumatic experiences as soldiers they are confident about the future. “I am going to be a businessman. I want to be rich,” an ex-combatant told Sudan Tribune.
Speaking during the opening session of the training, the Director of South Sudan DDR Commission WES Yambio, Emmanuel Zino Riko said that, “this is the first training to be conducted with the ex-combatants, to acquaint them with business skills in order to earn a living after ending their military careers.”
Emmanuel added that, “these ex-combatants, who have chosen microfinance are from Nagero, Tambura, Ezo and Nzara counties. The second training session shall be conducted in Maridi County on the October 15, 2010 for the eastern counties of Western Equatoria state,” adding that after the training ex-combatants will be given small business startup kits.
He explained that WES as so few ex-combatants because “some of the soldiers, when demobilized, decided to remain in Juba and there was no assembling area in WES.”
WES Governor Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro, during his opening remarks at the training workshop, urged the ex-combatants to be ambassadors of peace and tolerance in their various areas.
Bakosoro said that “some ex-combatants are found threatening people in the villages calling upon them to be disciplined, to gain reputations of good work and to avoid criminal acts.”
He encouraged the 15 ex-combatants attending to acquire skills from the training in order to start a civilian life.
He cautioned the ex-combatants against using business support money for drinking alcohol, urging the DDR Commission to “monitor closely the progress if the small businesses.”
Sudan Tribune observed that most ex-combatants are in the villages who demobilized themselves voluntarily, due to the deplorable conditions they were in. If the microfinance information was channeled through chiefs, many more ex-combatants would have registered for the training.
A landmark peace deal in 2005 ended Africa’s longest civil war. It gave the semi-autonomous region of southern Sudan the right to vote in a referendum on independence. This stipulation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, in which northern and southern Sudan agreed to lay down arms, is scheduled to be realized in January 2011.
Faced with sky-high expectations when it took power after 21 years of conflict and with the crucial vote looming, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement is under growing pressure to prove that it can improve the lives of its impoverished people.
The referendum preparations are significantly behind schedule and the international community has expressed concerns about the potential for conflict, if the CPA is not perceived as being honored.
(ST)