The next two days were spent with John, Tony, Ali, and numerous other SVP employees visiting various projects supporting mainly displaced people from South Sudan, Darfur, and the Nuba Mountains. We saw orphanages, training workshops, medical centres, baby feeding programmes, and agricultural initiatives. The major issue dominant throughout, however, was the impending secession of South Sudan from the North, and the mass migration, which was in progress as a result.
Many of SVP’s employees are originally from the South, as are a great deal of their beneficiaries. With the official date for independence set for July 7th, and with a huge amount of volatility and concern still present, virtually the entire 3 million population of southerners settled in the North are migrating back to the South. Many who we spoke to were in a great rush, and had a serious level of distrust towards the Northern government, and in particular the dictator behind much of Sudan’s recent terrors, including the Darfur genocide, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Many felt that the new South Sudan offered them freedoms, and potential that the North had always sought to take from them, but also were concerned that the North’s attitudes to Southerners in the North would become worse as a result. Jobs, human rights, property rights, and any other freedoms they felt may be taken from them if they were to stay.
This situation was one of huge concern with regard to SVP's work in Khartoum. Although, as mentioned, many beneficiaries from South Sudan were also heading back, many others from Darfur, and the Nuba Mountains etc would remain, and thus the support network somehow had to be maintained. I should mention at this point that John Ugu, who is currently in charge of SVP’s work in Khartoum, is a great guy, who is working tirelessly to address the issue. He is rarely out of his office, or away from programmes, and when he is, he usually has to be. It is encouraging to see the right person in the right place for this crucial time. In addition to the necessity to fill jobs in the North left by Southern Sudanese moving back South, it is also a key issue to ensure that SVP and other organisations work to help support those returning to the South with very little way of supporting themselves. A mass migration on this level, is certainly going to require careful and intense management in the early days of South Sudanese independence.
As a result of the above-mentioned issues, it was difficult to really learn enough about the programmes in Khartoum. Many employees were absent, and also all members of staff were called into an emergency meeting with UNICEF at the last minute on Thursday, meaning that our proposed filming had to be cancelled. The programmes are, however, without doubt of great importance, and provide vital assistance to people displaced and affected by Sudan’s bleak history of war and suppression. One of the most complex parts of the secession is the existence of ‘Southern’ regions (African traditionalists and Christians) geographically in the North, whom may still suffer severe oppression at the hands of the fundamentalist Islamic government in the North for years to come. We hope very much that South Sudan’s status as an official independent state will give them security from the international community, but also it is imperative not to forget the other long suffering regions.
Our departure from Sudan was delayed slightly after I had managed to misplace a bag of important documents (UK government style) at the Blue Nile Sailing Club, after my visit to see Andre, Arno, Pete, and Jill. When we first returned to check if they were there, we were told no, and thus a near two day long police search ensued, with buses and taxis stopped and searched en mass. We were only reunited with the bag when Phil and myself decided to check one more time at Blue Nile Sailing Club, and were handed over the oh so important bag of documents, which would allow us to continue our journey. Needless to say, they have now been re-filed, and stored in a safe place. Being stuck in Sudan currently would not be clever, and would have presented huge problems.
We eventually decided to leave on Thursday evening after a brief altercation with security forces for filming UN planes, which were arriving at Kharotum’s International Airport at an astonishing rate. The entire SVP team had been tied up with their urgent UNICEF meeting all , and with the situation becoming increasingly unstable it just seemed sensible to cut our losses and head to the border. Our time in Sudan, and particularly Khartoum was incredibly interesting, and we have to think the entire SVP team, in particular John and Tony for being such warm and kind human beings. Also, a big thank you to the priests at Encounter, where we stayed, for great hospitality and intriguing political conversations at meal times. Both Phil and myself felt an attachment to Sudan, and are both keen to return in the near future.
With our car fixed (again), we hit the road once more with Ethiopia in our sights. We would break the journey up into two chunks, the first on Thursday evening, and the second the following morning, and hoped to arrive at the ‘Kindu Trust’ in Gonder by Friday. Ethiopia is one of the countries I have been most looking forward to seeing, and with my impending move to Addis in September, I was keen to see for myself the place I would soon be calling home.
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