Women for Women international organization director flees Sudan over threats
April 13, 2010 (RUMBEK) – The country director of non-governmental organisation Women for Women International (WfWI), Karak Mayik Nyok has fled South Sudan this week after she was threatened by a member of the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
After she left for Uganda Mayik told Sudan Tribune that she believed her life was at risk if she remained in Rumbek the capital of Lakes state.
“I have no one to protect my life, I am just there doing my work knowing that I am in my country doing development for my people. As you have seen yourself I am serious with the work, during all this time I have faced a lot of difficulties, a lot of challenges and threats because of land, for example in the field work, but nothing scared me like this man’s threat”.
Kur used to live in Yirol but moved to Rumbek in 2010. Mayik says when she first arrived he welcomed her but the relationship soured and Kur began extorting money from her. He also forced Mayik to give him her own home generator and motorbike, she says.
Karak says she told Kur that the car belonged to the organisation so, unlike the other things he demanded, she could not give it to him.
“He becomes annoyed when I refused to give him the car and was saying that I am refusing to support him” Karak told Sudan Tribune.
She said that last month Kur had tried to enter the Women for Women compound in Rumbek with two bodyguards but had been refused entry by the security guards because they were armed.
However according to Karak, they forced their way in, “He went to my office and told me that he needed a car, I told him, uncle don’t force me to make corruption.”
Kur returned twice to warn the security guard that Karak and her team would be ambushed if he was not given the car. He then told the security guard Abraham Deng that he would “take action” against Karak for not handing over the car.
Following the threats Karak says she contacted the Lakes state Governor Chol Tong Mayay in person and other senior SPLA senior officers like Brigadier Deng Mayik Demay in an effort to stop the threats. According to Karak, their reaction was slow.
Mayik said she is going to report the situation to the South Sudan security services. She has also informed Albert Maurice Mugabushaka, the United Nations human rights officer in Rumbek as well as the media, hoping that by making the threats high profile, it might protect her and her staff.
The WfWI Sudan director, Karak, said was “really sad” to leave her work in South Sudan.
She said that nothing is being done to prevent violence against women in South Sudan. There have been several high profile incidences of male family members abusing women and girls over dowries..
Karak says that the problem is not being addressed because society views them as “just women” and that she feels under threat. She will attempt to travel to the UK if she is granted a visa, but would return to South Sudan as soon as the issue is addressed by the South Sudan government.
(ST)