Youths bear brunt of Sudan conflict
Stalked by fear even in temporary refuge where they should feel safe after displacement
HAVING twice escaped the clutches of South Sudanese rebels who forced him to fight with them, Puok Barar, a 16-year-old in rubber flip-flops decorated with the word “LOVE”, has already confronted many of his worst fears.
But in the PoC3 (Protection of Civilians) camp for people uprooted by violence and conflict, encircled by a barbed-wire on the outskirts of the capital Juba, where Puok now lives, he is still afraid.
His kidnappers may be far away, but inside the muddy camp of ramshackle tents, youths his age prowl, attacking others.
“They arm themselves with machetes and knives,” Puok said. He described rampant alcohol and drug use by young gangs with names like G-Unit and Westlife, who fight, steal and abuse others.
His friend Nyenhial James Lam, 16, said the gang culture extended to teenage girls, who had formed their own groups and took drugs.
“The girls fight like the boys.” Civil war erupted in South Sudan – the world’s youngest nation, created in 2011 when it gained independence from Sudan – after clashes in 2013 between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting his former deputy Riek Machar.
The violence, including gang rapes and attacks on civilians, have forced a third of the country’s 12 million people to flee their homes. Tens of thousands sought safety as close as they could get to bases housing UN peacekeepers.
These PoC sites were intended as temporary refuges, said Rob Simpson, country director for aid agency, Acted, who manages three such camps.
Yet stalled peace negotiations, together with rampant state corruption and no let-up in fighting, mean many people still cannot go home – and young people are bearing the brunt.
The UN runs six civilian protection sites across the country, housing more than 200 000 people.
In the past five years, four of the camps have been attacked by armed mobs, resulting in more than 180 deaths, according to the Overseas Development Institute based in London.
Thomas Makur Ruop, head teacher at Barar’s school, is worried for the first generation that will come of age in South Sudan.
“They are addicted to alcohol, crime and all those things. One day, they are going to be robbers (and) they may take power,” Ruop said.
“They may develop something different, like what there is in Nigeria – Boko Haram,” he said, referring to the Islamist militant group active around Lake Chad.
Using tactics from suicide bombings to abductions and theft, most Boko Haram members are unemployed, frustrated youths from under-developed parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Simpson said some children who were born in the PoC camp had never left its confines. “You’re living within a razor wire fence. It’s all you see.”
Having escaped from the ranks of a rebel group that took him from his village, Puok is one of the luckier ones.
About 19 000 minors are still being used by armed forces and groups in South Sudan, according to the UN.
The UN children’s agency Unicef has announced the release of more than 500 child soldiers from captivity since February, but recruitment of children by militias continues.
At the PoC sites, crime has dropped by close to a third in the past year due to interventions by peacekeepers and community police.
But gangs – mostly made up of young men aged between 15 and 20 – are still causing trouble, from vandalism and brawling to domestic violence, said Francesca Mold of the UN Mission in South Sudan.
A lack of opportunities stemming from entrenched poverty is a driving force behind the problem, she said.
The situation in the PoCs is worse in other parts of South Sudan, said Simpson.
One camp in Bentiu in Unity State has a reputation as “the youth gang crime centre”, he added.
Funding for this story was provided by the International Women’s Media Foundation.