Nigeria’s national conference and South Sudan

In South Sudan,  “rebels’’ led by Riek Machar, a former Vice-President, have  in Bentiu, capital of oil-rich Unity State, adopted Rwanda’s route of using a public radio station to incite people to kill and rape women from ‘’enemy’’ ethnic groups; combined with what a United Nations official asserted as ‘’rebels wiping out civilians based on […]

In South Sudan,  “rebels’’ led by Riek Machar, a former Vice-President, have  in Bentiu, capital of oil-rich Unity State, adopted Rwanda’s route of using a public radio station to incite people to kill and rape women from ‘’enemy’’ ethnic groups; combined with what a United Nations official asserted as ‘’rebels wiping out civilians based on their ethnicities and nationality’’.  Traders from Darfur in western Sudan were slaughtered inside a mosque; ‘’men, women and children who had run into a hospital and a Catholic church’’ were massacred by rebels. Many Darfur groups trace their ancestry to Nigeria. The borders of South Sudan are not far for hooves of cattle, and feet of pilgrims who once walked to pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
 On 15th December, 2013, soldiers in military barracks in Juba shot at each other. The shootings immediately spread across the country, suggesting a pre-planned scenario. President Salva Kiir blamed a foiled military coup led by Riek Machar. The international media instantly claimed a figure of 10,000 people killed and over 500,000 people displaced. They repeatedly tagged it as a ‘’tribal’’ war between the Dinka (Salva Kiir’s people) and the Nuer (Riek Machar’s people); and strenuously avoided seeing it as a power struggle between two elites competing for support among the electorate in the 2014 elections. There seemed to be a determination to provoke a civil war between the country’s two largest ethnic groups.
The Nuer settled on land and river areas rich in oil. China, India, South Africa, Germany and the United States have companies engaged in this oil business. Using small arms to fight for access to revenues from oil, diamonds, gold, timber and tantalum, is familiar to politicians in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mali. In South Sudan the wanton slaughter of non-combatants has roots in former northern Sudanese troops arming ethnic groups to rob livestock, grab un-harvested crops, and capture girls to sell in Libya, Egypt and beyond.  The goal of weakening John Garang’s armed struggle justified fanning numerous inter-ethnic slaughters. Tagged as ‘’divide and rule’’, this strategy by rebels shows no interest in building a sense of shared nationhood.
Southern Sudan has evolved in a poisonous memory environment. From Congo came memories of King Leopold of Congo cutting off hands of thousands of local people who had not collected rubber latex to meet prescribed quantities. His brutalities decimated over 10 million Congolese. President Mobutu after him killed Patrice Lumumba –who he had served as personal assistant – to save Congo being broken up into Katanga, Kasai, Bas-Congo and eastern provinces by Belgians and the Americans. Riek Machar seems to be resorting to genocide to demand reward with a power-sharing deal with Salva Kiir. He did so in the 1990s and was both forgiven and rewarded with a top leadership role. Both Machar and Kiir succeeded John Garang who died from a suspicious plane crash. They both wanted to rule a country they could call their own outside Sudan.
The memory of genocide from Rwanda has apparently also taken root. This must be a matter of grave concern for the African Union. General Sani Abacha left a legacy in this matter when it hit Sierra Leone. For him a man who had used children to slaughter hundreds of people deserved a special preventive diplomatic protocol, including being imprisoned inside a hotel suite. The other memory from Rwanda is President Paul Kagame’s idea of accountability. To mark 20 years of remembering the genocide in Rwanda he publicly proclaimed that the government of France took part in the genocide. It is the sort of response you expect from a former head of Uganda’s military intelligence. No amount of French economic aid can alter a historical fact and perfidy.
Kagame’s focus on re-engineering a relationship of conflict between ethnic groups – deliberately fostered by colonial officials – is one that Riek Machar and Salva Kiir should learn from. His dressing may well emphasise a Pharaonic head-cap with a cobra’s head –recalling SPLM’s roots in ‘’AnyaNya ’’(or poisonous snakes) fighters.
Nigeria should join Kagame in demanding culpability and accountability by members of NATO for promoting destruction of human life and infrastructures for development in Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean. With extensive records ranging from genocide against Native communities in north and South America; African death from debt repayments; slavery in the Americas; to Africa; to apartheid as a crime against humanity, Africa must be vigilant when Euro-Americans invoke their historical memories as guide to their post-Cold War diplomacy. Africa must help the UN Security Council to punish G7 members culpable for crimes of conceiving, aiding, arming, funding, abetting “sectarian’’ violence and massive displacements of populations; and economic crimes.
Nigeria invested large financial and diplomatic resources in the safari to South Sudan’s independence in 2011; and must urge politicians give primacy to a ‘National Rally of Citizens to talk for Peace and Reconciliation’. Women must play a significant role in it – as happened in Liberia and South Africa. An African Food Bank must be established to prevent famine resulting from displaced communities not planting crops.