Introduction

This is a new blog, which is simply putting my thoughts about the situation in Nimule, South Sudan, down in memoir form.  The current sudden deterioration of the situation and the lack of news about it has galvanised me to put my observations down.  My other blog, Living in Nimule, sticks completely to my work in South Sudan and Uganda for disadvantaged children.  

Cece Primary School was opened against a background of civil war, however it has rarely affected us directly.  I think the government forces were supposed to protect the only tarmacked road in the country, which leads from Uganda to Juba, the capital city.  Without supplies coming through Uganda, there would be no petrol, and a lot of commodities produced outside South Sudan (which means most things) would be unavailable.  There is a barracks right at the border.

In June 2016, a year after we founded Cece Primary School, there was a great escalation in the civil war in towns to the north of Nimule, along the road.  The homes, churches and businesses of the populations of towns such as Kerapi, Pageri, Loa and Magwi were completely destroyed.  Many people were killed and many women were raped. Everybody left alive fled straight down the road, through Nimule and took the UN completely by surprise at the border.  New refugee camps had to be opened in Uganda to cope with the huge numbers.  The soldiers responsible moved into the area, selling the metal roofs of all buildings, chopping down many trees (including teak plantations and fruit trees) to sell as firewood and selling any belongings left behind in order to live.  Those soldiers were living skeletons, dressed in rags. 

Although Nimule was unaffected, except by the sight of the people fleeing through our town and the horrendous tales they told, many people in Nimule also ran for the border in anticipation of the soldiers attacking.  Cece Primary School lost a lot of pupils and teachers, who joined the exodus.  However we reopened after a few weeks and continued to teach without interruption.   Nimule was completely unaffected by the violence and gradually local people returned home and our school increased in numbers again. 

I tried to get people to see that their reaction of running (when nothing was happening) was very harmful to their lives.  It is clear to me that the tradition of constantly running from threats was a major reason for the instability of South Sudan.  I was brought up in London and was a teenager at the time of the IRA bombings, with the words ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ constantly before me, and could see that the different attitude makes the difference between surviving a disaster and being overcome by it.  At the same time I felt that God was protecting Nimule.  Our school started during the war and the local Catholic church was completely rebuilt on a very large scale during the war.  I believe that this was God’s plan.

Now

A few weeks ago, in late April 2022, a neighbouring town called Mogali was attacked by men in army uniform who raped and murdered several people.  They were clearing the area of the local farming people (the Madi) in order to have it as a place for cattle, in a way highly reminiscent of the land clearances of the eighteenth century in Scotland and Ireland.  This is a commonplace occurrence in many parts of South Sudan.  Most of the cattle belong to the Dinka elite, including members of the government.  As a result the people of Mogali fled to the outskirts of Nimule, an area called Anzara, where the local chief allocated land and called on local NGOs and authorities to assist.  There were several thousand people displaced in this way.  Some then tried to cross to Uganda to stay in the refugee camps there.  Many were turned back at the border.