Members of the Shilluk community in the Diaspora have urged the United Nations Security Council to take immediate action to bring peace and security to South Sudan, before government forces and rebels could turn the country into genocide killing fields.

In a press release signed by more than 50 members of the community residing in USA, Australia, Canada and Europe, they condemned the heinous crimes committed against unarmed civilians in Malakal and Chollo villages.

“The barbarity of these atrocities and the consequential human suffering is almost beyond belief and comprehension of any civilized person,” they said.

At the same time, they appealed to the UN Security Council and the African Union to hold the perpetrators of what they termed “ethnic cleansing” responsible and accountable for their crimes. “We likewise urge the United Nations to deliver humanitarian relief assistance to the people in Malakal and Chollo villages, who are in dire need of the relief,” they said.

They expressed regret at the loss of lives and property, and massive displacement of civilians, mainly in the states of Upper Nile region (Upper Nile, Jonglei and Unity), as a result of the recent conflict.

Recalling the events of the past few months, they said that it was ironic that nowhere has the suffering been more severe and deadly than among the Chollo people. 

They blamed the government for not providing adequate security to protect people and their property in Shilluk-occupied areas.

“Many of them were killed in cold blood in ethnic targeting and their villages were torched by the marauding rebels, in a nutshell, Chollo Kingdom is undergoing ethnic cleansing,” they said. “The government did not provide the required protection and was reluctant to help them defend themselves. They are caught in a situation they were not party to. Practically, they are left on their own.”

This statement after renewed fighting erupted in Malakal early this month between government forces supporting President Salva Kiir, and rebel forces supporting Dr. Riek Machar.

There are reports that some of the local residents were followed and killed on their beds while looking for medical attention in hospitals.

The AU last week appointed a Commission, headed by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate human rights violations, and other abuses committed during the armed conflict that broke out in South Sudan in mid-December 2013.

The commission is also mandated to make recommendations on the best way and means to ensure accountability, reconciliation and healing among all South Sudanese communities.

The leader of the minority in South Sudan's national assembly has urged South Sudanese to promote dialogue as a way of restoring peace and to shun those who promote divisions.

While addressing a gathering of leaders from the Greater Upper Nile region in Juba today, Hon. Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec extended heartfelt condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the ongoing crisis. He said that the leaders from the three regions were not trying to divide the country into regions, but that they had common problems which needed to be address together.

“We have come here not to talk about the past but to discuss the way forward and the future,” he said.

He further said that the objective of the consultative meeting was to promote unity of purpose amongst the people of Greater Upper Nile.

“This will further enhance our identity and foster our national unity in diversity,” he said. He asked the leaders present to promote dialogue and collaboration among themselves in order to contribute to the reconciliation process.

“The vision of our country lies on us. We have to pursue issues of peace and reconciliation to promote peaceful coexistence in our three states of Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei. We are all one. ...our duty and greatest challenge is to fight the voices of division and seek the voices of reconciliation and forgiveness.”

Adigo emphasized that the leaders had the power to transform the nation into a better place and to lead the citizens in the right direction. He regretted that most of the people currently displaced and subjected to suffering, disease, hunger and death are from the Greater Upper Nile region.

Adigo reminded the people of South Sudan not to forget God at a time like this.

“Let us plead to the Lord that hearts which are enemies may speak to each other again, that hatred is overcome by love of one another, revenge gives way to forgiveness and discord is changed to mutual respect, so that we join hands and be able to support one another.”

About a thousand religious, community and political leaders from the three states of Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile, were gathered today to deliberate on the current situation of conflict in South Sudan.

In his opening remarks, Rt. Hon Manasseh Magok Rundial, the Speaker of National Assembly and the initiator of the consultative meeting said the region had been terribly abused by the rebellion.

“Huge numbers of people from Greater Upper Nile have died,” he said.

The Speaker assured the gathering that the resolutions of the meeting will be shared widely, and will be presented to the president and treated as a roadmap for peace and reconciliation in the Upper Nile region.

“Currently, it is difficult for our government to convince citizens to return home due to fear,” he said. “Citizens needed to be assured of safety.”

He stressed that the December 2013 “coup” was regrettable and added that power is not seized or acquired through bullet but through ballot.

The meeting that took place at the New Sudan Palace Hotel in Juba was attended by elders of Greater Upper Nile region, including the former head of the regional government of South Sudan, Abel Alier and Elijah Malok Aleng, Ismail Konyi, David Okware, and Matthew Uthow, among others.

It was also attended by leaders from the region that are in government, including Hon Kwong Danhier, minister for Roads, John Gai, minister for Education, Science and Technology, and Rebecca Joshua, minister for Telecommunication and Postal Services.

This is the first meeting of its kind for Greater Upper Nile region since 2005, when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed. The aim of the meeting was to provide a platform for deliberating on the current situation of conflict which has greatly affected the Upper Nile region.

An international medical humanitarian organisation has sounded alarm over the escalating levels of violence in Malakal, saying it is threatening the security of the people who are taking refugee in the UN compound in the town. The organisation says it fears that more violence will have devastating consequences on civilians if left unchecked. 

Medecins Sans Frontieres says that it has treated at least 150 wounded people after a new wave of violence hit the town of Malakal, in Upper Nile state, on February 18. Most of the wounded have been treated by MSF together with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) teams in Malakal. The United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) compound currently hosts over 21,000 people.

MSF says the patients were admitted to the UNMISS medical facility suffering from gunshot wounds from the clashes in town between government forces and rebel forces, as well as injuries as a result of inter-communal fighting in the camp.

Many people in the town were forced to seek refuge in the UNMISS compound after fighting broke out early in the week between the two opposing forces, in violation of the recently signed cessation of hostilities agreement. MSF says some of the displaced people reported cases of killings and rape of patients and relatives in the only functional hospital in town. 

In the past two days, MSF says more than 55 people with gunshot wounds from the fighting in Malakal have been brought for treatment to MSF’s facility in Nasir, Upper Nile state, with many more expected to arrive in the coming days.

“The high levels of violence have disrupted the humanitarian activities launched in Malakal to respond to the crisis,” says Llanos Ortiz, MSF deputy emergency desk manager. “The reigning insecurity is having a direct impact on the lives of the South Sudanese people and is also an obstacle for them to receive impartial medical humanitarian assistance.”

Since the onset of the crisis last December, fighting throughout the country is having serious consequences for the population, stricken not only by violence but also by a pre-existing alarming humanitarian situation. 

Meanwhile, the US has announced that it will work with the United Nations Security Council to hold accountable those who attack UN bases, loot or kill aid workers in South Sudan.

“Attacks against UNMISS and people it protects are unacceptable,” Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN tweeted, urging South Sudan to ensure the UN can carry out its mission unhindred.

She condemned the fighting that occurred early this week between South Sudan government troops and rebels in Malakal. The UN reports that at least 10 people died when inter-communal violence broke out among the displaced people who sought shelter within its camp.

Two international agencies say two million people are on the verge of starving as a result of the ongoing conflict, and have said that the conflict will reverse any gains that have been made in recent years on food security in South Sudan.

“Before mid-December, there was every indication that South Sudan had taken a step forward on food security, but the crisis is taking the country three steps backward instead,” said WFP Country Director Chris Nikoi. “Displacements caused by the conflict have left many people needing urgent food assistance.”

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), when the conflict erupted in December 2013, South Sudan’s food security outlook was the best it had been in five years, but the consequences of the conflict threaten to undo the country’s progress toward food security, and are likely to impact even parts of South Sudan not directly affected by fighting.

The two agencies say that the number of people in “crisis” and “emergency” food security conditions is estimated to have more than tripled. More than one million people are now estimated to be in “emergency” food security phase as opposed to none prior to the conflict.

In a press statement, the agencies said Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity, the states most affected by the conflict, were also the most food insecure prior to the conflict. Compared to the rest of the country, those three states had higher levels of severe food insecurity, the highest cereal deficits and very high dependency on markets for staple food.

“What is worrying now is the impact of the conflict on not only crops but also livestock, fishing and trading,” said Dr. Sue Lautze, FAO’s Head of Office in South Sudan.

Continuing insecurity is affecting trade routes through which food supplies are brought to other wider areas of South Sudan. The disruption in food supplies is taking place as households exhaust their stocks and enter the period when dependency on markets for food supplies becomes greater, the report said.

The agencies’ concerns were outlined in a report called the ‘FAO-WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan (CFSAM)’. The CFSAM is an important annual tool used to assess South Sudan’s agricultural production and food availability. The CFSAM team, working in collaboration with the government, collected data for the annual assessment in October and November.

WFP says it is expanding its operations in South Sudan to provide food assistance for 2.5 million conflict-affected and food-insecure people, and is deploying mobile distribution teams to reach remote areas.

FAO on its part is working to support those affected by the crisis to help themselves through supporting livelihoods. With many of the displaced now residing along the banks of the Nile and Sobat rivers, providing FAO fishing inputs is a key, immediate source of food and income.

An estimated 78 percent of South Sudan's rural population relies on various aspects of agriculture for their livelihoods, including cropping, livestock, forestry, fisheries and agriculture-related wage labour.

Latest UN reports say since the start of the crisis, some 706,000 people have been displaced within South Sudan by violence. Another 226,000 people have fled to Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.

Since the start of 2014, aid agencies have assisted 758,400 people, or 24 per cent of the 3.2 million they plan to reach by June 2014. This includes 234,000 refugees in South Sudan.

The UN has announced that it will investigate an error in transport of weapons for new contingents. The trucks carrying the weapons were discovered in Rumbek, Lakes State, and they were destined for Bentiu, in Unity State.

The UN said that it will dispatch a high level investigation team to look into the matter on an urgent basis, in cooperation with the government of South Sudan.

In a press release, the UN said that it was the policy of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), that all arms and ammunition for peacekeeping contingents during crisis, are flown into respective areas of deployment and not taken by road.

‘In connection with the transport of cargo of general goods belonging to the Ghanaian battalion on its way to Bentiu, several containers were wrongly labelled and inadvertently contained weapons and ammunition. This is regrettable. The Ghanaian troops are part of the surge of UNMISS troops to assist South Sudan and the goods were en route to Bentiu, passing through Rumbek,” explained the statement.

Lakes State security services confiscated 11 United Nations trucks loaded with assorted military consignments, guns and ammunitions. The trucks were painted with UN colours and labeled as if carrying relief food and non-food items.

According to trucks drivers who did not want to be mentioned, the trucks came from Mombasa in Kenya and were heading to Unity State through Juba and Rumbek. The vehicles passed through all the border check points to Juba, with no suspicion raised till they arrived in Lakes state where security personnel at check point become suspicious about the UN relief vehicles. The accompanying UNMISS waybill reads construction materials, using a transport company called ‘Tesalim’ (surrender in Arabic).

The world body in South Sudan regretted the situation, terming it as unfortunate. Some critics said this confirmed the position of UNMISS that the UN is supporting the SPLM in opposition which rebelled against government.

“I have seen myself at Rumbek freedom square when the weapons were off-loaded from UN vehicles displayed for the public to see,” said Mabor Kau Akec, who witnessed the offloading of the weapons.

“Since UNMISS has declared to be part of rebels, why do we need to go to Malakal, Akobo and Nasir to hunt for rebels when we have them in Rumbek or Juba?” he asked.

This has raised fears and suspicion among local residents that the UN is not neutral in the conflict in South Sudan. It has raised tension in an environment that is already volatile and unstable.

The recent conflict in South Sudan caused by political rivalry has had serious economic effects on South Sudanese and particularly students who are studying in foreign institutions. 

Most people who were running businesses in Bor in Jonglei, Malakal in Upper Nile, and Bentiu in Unity State, as well as in Juba to support their children and close relatives in schools, totally lost all their income generating activities in the war.

In St. Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya, many students did not register for the January semester because they have no money to pay for their tuition and upkeep.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Rev. Canon, Prof. Joseph Galgalo, acknowledged this while during held to pray for peace in South Sudan. He said since the conflict happened, many South Sudanese students had been affected, some did not register for the January semester and supporting their upkeep had become difficult. The professor appealed to the donor community, especially those who have been supporting the South Sudan Church, to continue helping the people of South Sudan.

John Aluong Madhoor, the chairperson of St. Paul’s University South Sudanese Students Association (SPUSSSA) told TCT that he did not register in this semester because his sponsor was the late Gen. Abraham Jongror, who was killed in Jonglei State. Mr. Madhoor said that he was not the only one affected but the entire family, saying that most of their family members have moved to Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, at least so that the younger ones can get into United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee schools in the camp.

“But for higher learning institutions, we have no money now. As chairperson, I have a report that many other students did not register and they are not sure when and where they are going to get fee to achieve their dreams that have just been cut short by situation,” he said.

Madhoor is appealing to well-wishers and sympathizers to help South Sudanese students, especially those who are currently in the university so as they can finish their studies.

Mabil Yaak, who just came from Bor in Jonglei, said he could not believe that human beings can act beyond the devil. Yaak said he was seriously traumatized by what happened in his hometown but luckily, he was counseled by encouraging messages from spiritual leaders. He added that many people are still traumatized, whether living in Kenya or back home. He says that people need spiritual counseling.

“We South Sudanese need nothing but peace and stability,” he said.

Daniel Yor Deng, a student at St. Paul’s University, Theology department, said there was a need for trauma healing workshops to be conducted in Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret and Kakuma because of the serious effects of the conflict on the people.

Deng, who is on wheelchair, a victim of Sudan civil war and a counselor by profession, says he can talk to people if he is supported to do so.

The over seventy South Sudanese students in St. Paul’s University are calling for peace in South Sudan and are urging the warring parties to respect the agreement on cessions of hostilities.