How Political Power Struggle Turned Violence in South Sudan
6 min readBY AKOL AMET DUT, NAIROBI-KENYA
June 16, 2015 (SSB) — In South Sudan, African officials seeking to mediate an end to South Sudan’s bloodshed are, in effect, trying to repair rifts in the very liberation movement in the running Party SPLM that they fought so many years to bring the independence to the country of south Sudan. The conflict, which pits powerful tribes against each other, is also a political struggle that threatens to shatter one of the continent’s most history groups of freedom fighters of SPLA.
After South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011, U.S. diplomats and analysts expected that lingering animosities over oil revenue, disputed boundaries and security would be the biggest challenges facing the world’s newest nation. Instead, the leaders whom Washington nurtured threaten to unravel one of America’s most significant policy successes in sub-Saharan Africa in this century.
Consider this, many of the 11 senior South Sudanese officials arrested for an alleged coup attempted two years ago belong to President Salva Kiir’s ethic group. Like him, they are stalwarts of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement SPLM, now the ruling party. “There may be elements who seek to exploit the current crisis to pursue their own agendas, but this is fundamentally a power struggle,” of the top official in South Sudan.
Ethnic bloodletting between South Sudan’s two largest tribal groups — the Dinka and the Nuer — is raging in many parts of this vast oil-producing nation, raising fears of a potential civil war. Yet the tussle for power in the political realm is more complex while Riek Machar’s demanding unacceptable with his tribesmen or groups. Some of Kiir’s most vocal opponents are, like him, Dinka. And there are Nuer politicians who oppose Riek Machar, the former vice president and a Nuer, whose loyalists are waging a rebellion against the government of south Sudan.
In many ways, the political tensions reflect the SPLM’s struggles as it transitions from a band of fighters to a ruling party in a new democracy infused with billions of dollars in oil was pokiest by the officials by both side of three SPLM factions. “Those who came as liberators are now the ones fighting themselves,” an opposition party leader. “They are very irresponsible, inexperienced and incapable to leading us in a good manner. They are in power for eight good years and they cannot agree for themselves, which only brings chaos.”
The SPLM has been a political force since 2005-2013, they has two things in their hands to maintaining the power (Army forces, and political aspiration) when it signed an American-backed peace accord with the Khartoum government that ended Sudan’s 22-year-long civil war, paving the way for independence 3 years ago. South Sudan’s successive American administrations have invested billions of dollars in hopes of making South Sudan an oasis of stability in a region plagued by growing Islamist militancy and terrorism.
It was a cause that united disparate groups of Americans Parties: Democrats and Republicans, people of different faiths, and human rights activists. African nations such as Kenya and Ethiopia, which are now leading mediation efforts, were also among the SPLM’s biggest backers.
The current clashes were triggered by a dispute, followed by fighting, between soldiers loyal to Kiir and Machar on Dec. 15 2013 to overthrow president Kiir. That grew into allegations by Kiir that Machar was trying to seize power and led to the arrests of the 11 officials. I also believe that, Riek Machar’s ambitious power and greed, within days, fighting had spread to half of South Sudan; Machar wasn’t said enough is enough to his force, he went on and captured Jonglei State, Unity states, Upper Nile State and including vital oil-producing areas.
Several thousand people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been uprooted from their homes as aid agencies tackle a burgeoning humanitarian crisis. Dinkaism and Nuerism are accused of perpetrating atrocities against each other but it wasn’t the civilian who fights for their own interest, they are being using by the politicians to achieve their political ambitious and settlement within the ruling party of SPLM leadership.
The SPLM and its armed wing, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), has for more than two decades been an unruly conglomeration of ethnic groups and militias. The most famous split took place in 1991 when Machar left the movement and he made seriousness massacre and genocides in Bor. He joined the Khartoum regime six years later and then returned to the SPLM in 2002.
But the rivalry between Kiir and Machar only intensified, especially after the death of SPLM leader John Garang in a 2005 helicopter crash that propelled Kiir to the SPLM leadership and south Sudan as a whole.
Late in 2012, Machar declared his intention to contest the chairmanship of the SPLM leadership, held by Kiir, a position that could have led to Machar achieving his core ambition of becoming president.
Analysts say there was intense resistance to Machar’s decision to run, particularly from Kiir’s inner circle, made up of his clan of Dinka tribesmen. They had not forgotten the 1991 split, which triggered violence that included the massacre hundreds of thousands of Dinka by Nuer soldiers, which human rights activists and SPLM officials have linked to Machar.
“Within the party, Salva Kiir has found growing discontent with his style of leadership, and this may have forced him back on relying increasingly on his home community both within the party and within the security forces,” “As for Riek, support for him by various Nuer communities has not been uniform or consistent.”
By last spring, Machar was openly questioning Kiir’s ability to govern the SPLM leadership and the nation. In April 2013, Kiir stripped Machar of many of his powers. Three months later, he fired Machar from his position as vice president and dissolved the Cabinet. He also suspended Pagan Amum, the popular and longer SPLM secretary general, accusing him of corruption and it’s real.
On Dec. 6, Machar, Amum and other ousted officials declared that Kiir had dictatorial tendencies and that he had “immobilized” the SPLM, driving it and South Sudan “into the abyss.” nine days later, the clashes began. (Machar’s behavioral in 1991 said; Dr. Garang “Must stop down” again in 2013 up to date Kiir “Must stop down”). Is it the nature of Riek with his supporters throughout the decade?
You can reach me through this email: davidakol2014@gmail.com
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