{"id":208217,"date":"2022-04-04T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=208217"},"modified":"2022-03-31T04:46:14","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T03:46:14","slug":"south-sudan-oil-underground-blood-on-the-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/04\/south-sudan-oil-underground-blood-on-the-surface\/","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan: Oil Underground, Blood on the Surface"},"content":{"rendered":"
29 Mar 2022 <\/span><\/em>\u2013 While several politicians -and media\u2013 have been viewing the ongoing armed conflict in South Sudan as a \u201ccivil war\u201d between rival ethnic groups, so nothing to worry about, there are some key facts that should be considered for the sake of having a wider, more accurate panorama. One of them is that this country is rich in oil.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\"Widespread<\/p>\n

Widespread sexual violence against women and girls in conflict is being fueled by systemic impunity, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan reports. Credit: Jared Ferrie\/IPS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span>Many politicians and media have also been blaming the widespread corruption as one main cause of South Sudanese inhumane living conditions while ignoring the evidence that if there are corrupt it is because there are \u201ccorruptors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the armed conflict in South Sudan has been having tragic consequences. Women and girls are taken as \u201cwar trophies,\u201d subjected to mass rape, forced pregnancy, torture, slavery and a long list of brutalities. In the meantime, the country is rapidly bracing for a devastating famine.<\/p>\n

A bit of background<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

South Sudan is the youngest State in the world. It was born in 2011, following accusations of war crimes committed by the then regime of Sudan\u2019s Omar Al Bashir, who served as the seventh head of state of Sudan from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat.<\/p>\n

This young State was an integral part of Sudan since the British Empire and European powers distributed the world between themselves during the long era of European colonialism which lasted from the 15th to the 20th centuries.<\/p>\n

During that period, European powers vastly extended their reach around the globe by establishing colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.<\/p>\n

There is oil down there!<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Anyway, South Sudan is home to oil reserves, representing more than 80% of the total oil stocks of Sudan, to which it belonged until its precipitated declaration of independence in 2011.<\/p>\n

The country ranks third in oil reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 3.5 billion barrels produced annually. However, it is also estimated that 90 percent of its gas and oil reserves are still untapped.<\/p>\n

See what Alan Boswell<\/a>, of \u2018The International Crisis Group<\/a>,\u2019 an independent organisation working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world, reported<\/a> on February 2022:<\/p>\n

\u201cOil then laid the groundwork for South Sudan\u2019s secession. A landmark 2005 peace deal granted Juba half of the South\u2019s oil revenues, pumping billions into the new semi-autonomous government.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the sudden wealth gravely compromised the country\u2019s stability. By 2013, only two years after independence, the elite scramble for South Sudan\u2019s oil riches helped trigger a fresh war that may have killed 400,000 people while displacing millions.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays, despite a 2018 peace agreement and a government of national unity, Juba\u2019s monopoly on oil revenue obstructs a broader political settlement the country desperately needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Sudan\u2019s leaders siphon off the bulk of the petrodollars, leaving much of the population starved of basic services and, in some parts of the country, on the brink of famine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Hellish existence\u2019 for women and girls<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Meanwhile, widespread sexual violence against women and girls in conflict is being fueled by systemic impunity, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan<\/a> reported on 21 March 2022.<\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s report<\/a>, based on interviews conducted with victims and witnesses over several years, describes a \u201chellish existence for women and girls\u201d, with widespread rape being perpetrated by all armed groups across the country.<\/p>\n

According<\/a> to the UN Commission, sexual violence has been instrumentalized as a reward and entitlement for youth and men participating in the conflict.<\/p>\n

The goal is to inflict maximum disruption of the fabric of communities, including through their constant displacement, the report continues.<\/p>\n

Rape is often used as \u201cpart of military tactics for which government and military leaders are responsible, either due to their failure to prevent these acts, or for their failure to punish those involved\u201d, the Commission advanced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere, women are taken as \u2018spoils of war, a \u2018trophy\u2019 for armed men.\u201d<\/p>\n

On this, the UN Human Rights Council<\/a>, in its 49th session (28 February\u20131 April 2022), has included in its agenda the conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls in South Sudan.<\/p>\n

Perilous situation<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls is widespread and systematic throughout South Sudan. Ongoing conflict across the country has created a perilous situation of great insecurity for women and girls, exacerbated by a lack of accountability for sexual and gender-based violence, says the Council summary<\/a> document.<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Council\u2019s paper explains that sexual violence in South Sudan has been instrumentalized as a \u201dreward and entitlement\u201d for youth and men participating in the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 The objective being to inflict maximum disruption and the destruction of the fabric of communities, including through their constant displacement. This scourge has had the most profound impact on victims, their families and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWidespread and pervasive, conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls in South Sudan takes place in the context of persistent conflict and insecurity, drastic gender inequity, and prevailing impunity, which exacerbate its prevalence and contribute to its normalisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report concludes that conflict-related sexual violence in South Sudan\u2019s conflicts takes many forms: \u201crape; gang rape and mass rape; abductions and sexual slavery; sexual torture, beatings and cruel and inhuman treatment; being forced to witness sexual violence; forced unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancies; and other forms of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conflict-related sexual violence in South Sudan, it adds, has been instrumentalised to destroy the very fabric that binds communities, and as a strategy to displace, terrorise and humiliate civilian populations. This sexual violence is linked to the political and ethnic divisions at the heart of these conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSexual violence is used to humiliate and force opponents to leave a given territory, and thereby plays a critical role as one of the instruments of ethnic displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pervasive poverty<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Such brutal violence and injury, the study goes on, take place in a context of pervasive poverty and extreme gender inequality, reflected in high rates of sexual and gender-based violence outside of conflict, a lack of women\u2019s participation in political and public life, high rates of girl children being subjected to early or forced marriage, the lack of access by women and girls to livelihoods, and poor health outcomes that rank amongst the lowest for women and girls globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experiences of women and girls subjected to sexual violence in conflict cannot be isolated from wider political violence, which typically involves brutal violations and abuses perpetrated by armed men against civilians, including killings, abductions, torture and forced displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bodies reduced to \u2018spoils of war\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan<\/a> report also adds that \u201cIt is outrageous and completely unacceptable that women\u2019s bodies are systematically used on this scale as the spoils of war,\u201d as declared by Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the UN Commission.<\/p>\n

Sexual violence survivors have detailed \u201cstaggeringly brutal and prolonged gang rapes\u201d perpetrated against them by multiple men, often while their husbands, parents or children have been forced to watch, helpless to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen of all ages recounted being raped multiple times while other women were also being raped around them, and a woman raped by six men said she was even forced to tell her assailants that the rape had been \u201cgood\u201d, threatening to rape her again if she refused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bracing for \u2018worst hunger crisis ever\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

More than 70 percent of South Sudan\u2019s population will struggle to survive the peak of the annual \u2018lean season\u2019 this year, as the country grapples with unprecedented levels of food insecurity caused by conflict, climate shocks, COVID-19, and rising costs, the UN\u2019s World Food Programme (WFP<\/a>) in 11 March 2022 warned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While global attention is focused on Ukraine, said WFP<\/a>, a \u201chidden hunger emergency\u201d is engulfing South Sudan with about 8.3 million there \u2013 including refugees \u2013 facing extreme hunger in the coming months.<\/p>\n

As the 2022 lean season peaks, food becomes scarce and provisions are depleted, according to the latest findings published in the 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly at risk are tens of thousands of South Sudanese who are already severely hungry following successive and continuous shocks and could starve without food assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the oil business goes on.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Baher Kamal, <\/em>a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, <\/em>is an Egyptian-born, Spanish national, secular journalist, with over 45 years of professional experience \u2014 from reporter to special envoy to chief editor of national dailies and an international news agency. Baher is former <\/em>Senior Advisor<\/a> <\/em>to the Director General of the international news agency IPS (Inter Press Service)<\/a> and he also contributed to prestigious magazines such as <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/a>, GEO, Muy Interesante, and<\/em> Natura, Spain<\/em>. He is also publisher and editor of<\/em> Human Wrongs Watch.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 human-wrongs-watch.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Mar 2022 \u2013 While politicians and media have been viewing the ongoing armed conflict in South Sudan as a \u201ccivil war\u201d between ethnic groups, there are some facts that should be considered. One of them is that this country is rich in oil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":100598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[237,2479,754,2819,128,92],"class_list":["post-208217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","tag-africa","tag-civil-war","tag-oil","tag-south-sudan","tag-sudan","tag-violent-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}