Kiir-Adem: Mile 14 Should not be Sacrificed to Sudan’s Messieriya and Rizeigat Arabs

Aweil Graduates Association (AGA): Letter of Condemnation on Kiir-Adem (Mile 14)

Tuesday, December 08, 2020 (PW) — Aweil Graduates Association (AGA) condemns in the strongest terms possible the deals of the Vice President for Service Delivery Cluster, H.E Hussein Abdel Baghi Ayii Akol, with the government of the Republic of Sudan by proposing the demilitarization and withdrawal of SSPDF forces from Mile 14 South wards. Your appointment by H.E General Salva Kiir Mayardit on the ticket of SSOA was not intended to interfere in the matters of compromising borders that belong to South Sudan, more especially areas like mile 14.

Mile-14 has never belonged to Rizeigat nomads of the Sudan since time immoral. It has been part of Malual North County of Aweil North, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State. You need to be educated on the borders of South Sudan rather than being submissive to the Sudanese governments and their cohorts at the expense of South Sudanese citizens. The issue of our land cannot be made like other things in South Sudan and anybody expects the citizens to keep quiet. 

In your meeting as a vice president with some generals, your position on the withdrawal of South Sudanese Army deep southwards of River Kiir is unbecoming and shall be met with a full resistance from Malual Dinka in totality. The decision makers should not allow such a bad thinking to take place on the 20th December 2020 or any other time the plotters may schedule. 

Brief history of the agreements made:

On 3rd September 2013, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahamed el Bashir and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit concluded a submit in Addis Ababa by committing – yet- again to demilitarize the border area between the two countries. Central to the creation of Safe Demilitarized Border Zone was the mile 14, located between Northern Bahr El Ghazal and Eastern Darfur. Mile 14 area is principally occupied by Dinka Malual. The Rizeigat – the largest cattle keepers in Eastern Darfur annually come to the south to graze their livestock around River Kiir. Many Disputes over grazing lands were frequent at the beginning of 20th Century between the Northern Sudanese pastoralists and Dinka Malual.

In 1918, in an attempt to dampen the clashes, the then British Governor of Eastern Darfur, Patrick Munro created a new grazing boundary for the Rizeigat, some 40 miles of the South. Following vociferous complaints from Malual Dinka, in 1924, a compromise was agreed between Munro and Mervyn Wheatley, the Governor of Bahr El Ghazal who created a zone of the Rizeigat grazing that extended to a line 14 Miles South of River Kiir. This line is known today as the Munduro-Wheatley line, and the zone it demarcates is referred to as the 14-mile area.

On the 27th September 2012, security arrangement signed with much fanfare in Addis Ababa, the mile 14 area was belated addition to a map created by African Union High-Implementation Panel (AUHIP), which laid out the extent of the SDBZ. It was added to the map at the insistence of the Government of the Sudan (GOS) which claimed that to not include this area within the SDBZ would be to concede the Sudanese territory to South Sudan. This claim is not in line with the 27th September 2012 border agreement which states that the SDBZ is a temporary zone which has no effect on the ongoing negotiations over the final status of the border.

The Munduro – Wheatley line was intended to mark out an area for Rizeigat grazing, not an absolute territorial border. The 14 mile area has remained an area of shared rights for grazing but both the Dinka Malual and Rizeigat make claim to the territory. In fact, the Rizeigat or the Messiriya, were only granted grazing rights of their livestock on the grounds on helping their animals, not for them to own any land. The former argue that their land extends north to the River Kiir, up to Mariem, and that this area is part of South Sudan.

The Rizeigat claims that their territory extends 14 miles South of River Kiir. Since South Sudanese independence, these claims have since intensified as both groups fear that the national boundary would deprive them of the vital grazing land.

There has been no progress since 2005 on the final location of the border, despite a series of negotiations, and there is little chance of an agreement on the final Northern Bahr el Ghazal – eastern Darfur border in the foreseeable future. The mile-14 area, in addition to be a grazing area and an arena for political claims, is  also supposed to be a demilitarized zone monitored by Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanisms with international observers from the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), and representatives of both countries. Within this area, “Joint Tribal Mechanisms” are supposed to resolve disputes. 

Dinka Malual greeted the signing of the agreements with harsh and public criticisms, holding protests in Aweil and in Juba. This discontent was mirrored at the state level, with an October  statement of the then Governor of Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Paul Malong Awan, in which he thanked Dinka Malual for refusing to allow the SDBZ to exist in their ancestral lands. The Malual Dinka feel that the SDBZ will mean abandoning territory that many have lost relatives depending, both during the second civil war and  the clashes around Kiir Adem since 2011.

According to the census conducted in 2008, Kiir Adem was a registration Centre in Aweil North County, NBGs. Also during 2010 general elections, Kiir Adem was both a registration and polling station and was under constituency number four which is Malual North in Aweil North County. In 2005 – 2009, Kiir Adem’s Bridge was constructed by the government of Northern Bahr El Ghazal State.

Way forward:

The government of South Sudan should always use the evidence and the 1956 lines for proper handling of any incidences such as mile 14. The British maps during the administration of the Sudan then, during the colonial period, should be basis of negotiating with the Sudan or any other country encroaching the South Sudanese borders. Involving community leaders such as chiefs and eminent personalities and national borders committee could help the situation instead of relying heavily on sub-standard non-technical self-proclaimed politicians. Some politicians were born outside South Sudan and have no knowledge of our borders. Others follow colonialist ideologies or can easily be used by Arabs to interfere in our internal affairs.

Aweil Graduates Association (AGA) is urging the vice president for service delivery cluster to desist from playing such political cards. No joke with our land shall be tolerated. The other collaborators in the government of South Sudan that might be engineering such schemes should also stop doing so. AGA needs the borders to stand at the internationally recognized border line of 1956 during colonial era between the North and the South.

Those who are influencing the government of Salva Kiir, whether from former NCP coverts or other parties including the ruling party, the SPLM, must always respect people’s will, not their parties’ will. If the plan continues to leave our land to Rizeigat, obviously, not only shall AGA rise up, but also the entire Mading Aweil Community shall rise like the Sun publically for the sake of their border that some politicians and generals of vested interest are playing with.

The end!

By Aweil Graduates’ Association, chairperson

Contact: +211928584765

If you want to submit an opinion article, commentary, or news analysis, please email it to the editor: info@paanluelwel.com or paanluel2011@gmail.com. PaanLuel Wël Media (PW) website does reserve the right to edit or reject material before publication. Please include your full name, a short biography, email address, city, and the country you are writing from.

About Post Author