South Sudan civil war: The war of fears, no substance for it
By Nhial Bol Aken, Juba, South Sudan
August 9, 2017 (SSB) — When one of my friends asked me to tell him the root causes of the current war, I was prompted to respond that the war which engulfed our country is rooted in fears from one another.
I explained that the war we are witnessing is a war of fears and that the outsiders seem to ignore the claim invented by some of the former liberation fighters who liberated us from external colonialism of the Arabs.
What used to unite us was collective frustration against the Arabs of the Sudan now with independence, there is nothing in common and it seems that there is no political will to address the issues related to land disputes, bitterness, and grievances, all the local conflicts over lands, identities, and control of resources and power.
Clearly, there are attempts to assimilate others and this had pushed the smaller tribes to resort to violence. Complaints about resources are in the making of fears among our communities.
Most of the movements formed to resist what I considered as an attempt to impose domestic colonialism are local by nature and the fight is for their survival and the protection of lands without any substance for going to war if there is the political will to sort the issues out.
The evidence is that the Dinka formed Mathiang Anyour because they thought that the Nuer white army wants to overthrow their government and from there the war of fears began and spread to Upper Nile region and parts of Equatoria.
The SPLA-IO is a Nuer movement to defend Nuer lands whereas Agwelek is a Chollo movement for Chollo land;
Abuk Shok is Dinka movement protecting Dinka Padang Lands from Chollo, Federal Democratic Front is, Eastern Nuer movement;
National Democratic Movement is for liberation of Lou ethnic groups across the country, National Salvation Front is Equatoria Movement, National Resistance Movement is of Bahr El Ghazal movement and many others;
However, all these are competing to protect their communities.
Some rhetoric suggests that the national army, the former SPLA is aligned to be the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE). It is said out of fear.
Since there are no serious factors for engulfing in war there is a need for political will to sort the outstanding issues to end the crisis. The war is simply the war of fears, no substance at all.
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