Control of the bureaucracy and armed forces is a matter of constant contention for different tribal groups and their leaders

The Guardian Editorial

South Sudan is a disparate collection of tribes that does not yet truly deserve the title of a state. Indeed, the state is at the root of the problems of South Sudan. Control of state organs, of the government, the bureaucracy and, above all, of the armed forces is a matter of constant contention between different tribal groups and their leaders. Those in the ascendancy, or seen to be in the ascendancy, are accused of taking too much of the resources, money and jobs to which government gives access.

Those who feel deprived revolt, often violently, and those revolts are put down with even more violence. It is a vicious circle from which it is difficult to escape. The roots of these inter-tribal conflicts go back to well before South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in July 2011. Lesser tribes resent what they see as the joint dominance of Nuer and Dinka, resulting in serious clashes in many regions.

The Dinka and the Nuer, or their leaders, themselves fall out, and this can then involve other tribal groups as a chain of alliances and a pooling of grievances takes effect. The divisions constantly threaten to split the Sudan People’s Liberation army, or SPLA.

The crisis now gripping the country seems to have begun in the armed forces. Some kind of trouble was predictable after president Salva Kiir, a Dinka, dismissed his vice-president, Riek Machar, as well as the whole of his cabinet in July. Then Kiir, earlier this week, accused Mr Machar of having tried to stage a coup, using disaffected soldiers, and said the attempt had been foiled. But the fighting has continued in Juba, the capital, and elsewhere, notably in Akobo, in Jonglei province, where a UN base has come under attack, and two peacekeepers have been killed. The situation is now threatening enough that various countries have sent, or will soon be sending, military or charter planes to bring out their citizens, while the United States has dispatched a small force of soldiers to protect its embassy staff. The UN has sent helicopters to re-establish contact with its Akobo base. Civilians have as usual taken refuge in international compounds. There may be combatants among them, which might explain the attack on the Akobo base.

There is some hope that the crisis can be defused. An African peace delegation led by the Ethiopian foreign minister, Tedros Adhanom, has been having talks with the president, who says he is ready for discussions with Mr Machar. He, however, is still insistent that the president step down from power. Even if the rift is patched up, a tactical deal would only be a very small step toward a real cure for the jealousy and mistrust that poison the relations between South Sudan’s peoples.

Source: The Guardian