* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
By Atem Dut
This year, all schools in South Sudan are set to open by February 15, much earlier than the old Sudan’s calendar when schools would reopen in April after break.
Not many children used to attend school in Pibor County in the strife-torn state of Jonglei until the local Member of Parliament used her constituency development funds to construct a permanent primary school in Likuangole.
However, children’s hopes of going to school this term in Pibor have all but vanished.
On December 30 last year, the Lou Nuer tribesmen cordoned Murle villages and cattle camps in the area killing civilians and raiding their cattle. In Likuangole, any standing structures including Likuangole Primary school were burned down.
“I was in class three in Likuangole primary school. It is now destroyed by Nuer people. I will stay at home and help my mother if I am not going to go to school again. We can return to the bush to hide if there are more threats to our safety,” said 13-year-old Kaka. She helps her mother in pounding grain for food.
“I can stay at home and play with my friends when I want to because our school has no roof. Nuer burned it. But if our teacher calls us to study under the tree, I will come. I want to go to class two this year and learn new things,” said 10-year-old John from Likuangole.
“I was in class one, I am not sure if I got promoted to class two. We haven’t seen our results,” he said.
“My children used to go to this school. Now they have no education and they have no cattle to herd,” said Ngare Kila pointing to a roofless structure of walls that used to be her children’s school. Three of her four children attended classes 1, 2, and 3 in Likuangole primary school.
Plan had planned to reach Likuangole Primary in 2012 as part of its Food for Education programme. At least 4,260 children are benefiting from this programme in Jonglei’s counties of Pibor and Akobo.
“We ran to the bushes for safety when we were attacked by the Lou Nuer. They found us out in the bush and shot at us. They did not kill anyone from my family but several people died. We ran towards Pibor and stayed in the cover of bushes there,” Kila said.
“We returned yesterday and discovered that everything was burned including the school and the clinic. This is so inhuman of these attackers.”
In the bushes, Kila said they fed their children on fruits and wild meat. “We have gone for several days without eating anything but just hiding and sleeping on grasses and thorns. We did not know how long they would be here but we knew they had come to stay on our soil,” Kila said.
Since she returned, Kila, her husband and their four children sleep under a tree right at Likuangole Primary School compound. She covers her young child in a cloth sheet that she uses during the day as part of her dress. The rest sleep around a fireplace. Kila is among the 3000 IDPs who returned late after the first phase of food distribution elapsed and missed out. But Plan and the World Food Programme have assured them that they will get food before others in the next phase. They will also receive non-food items through other agencies.
Writing on the wall
The attackers have left their names and counties they come from on the walls of Likuangole primary school. Some have even written down their level of education. Some writings declare annexing Likuangole to Akobo, Nyirol, and Uror – the neighboring Lou Nuer counties where the attackers planned the assault. They have also left messages on the wall for rival Murle tribe people.
Cows no more
“I don’t like cattle anymore; they have brought us enough problems. I have advised my people to change to other ways of living like farming,” said county administrator Simon Ali Ngole. He said his biggest challenge would be the tools for farming and changing the attitude of the local people who have relied on cows for generations.
Local stories date back cattle raiding between Murle and Nuer tribes to late 1880s when two young men, a Nuer and a Murle, fought because a bull belonging to a Nuer had killed the one of a Murle man.
“The entire community is affected. We don’t have cows and I don’t think we would acquire them again. They are taken by Nuer and they have burned down our houses and food,” said Ngole.
In collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation, Plan South Sudan will provide tools and seeds to the communities in Likuangole. Those along the river will also receive fishing kits. But this will require will of the Murle people to accept the new socio-economic shift. Though it will be quite a challenging task, the local government believes it is just a matter of time and the people will adapt to new lifestyle and economic activity.
(Atem Dut is Plan's Communication Officer in South Sudan. More information about Plan's work in South Sudan can be found here.)
