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Panyume mother of four says peace agreement yet to yield tangible dividends

Rough road, rough living. Panyume is yet to see tangible dividends of peace.

“Peace is about loving one another, about eating good meals and about free movement of people without fear of intimidation, harassment or being killed by anyone, and about sleeping in one’s own house,” says Betty Gire, a mother of four currently displaced in Panyume of Morobo County, an area controlled by the Sudan people’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition.

However, that appears to be a hope long lost since Miss Gire fled her native village of Kangapo in Kajo-Keji County to a refugee camp in neighbouring Uganda’s Moyo District in the heat of the South Sudanese conflict that broke out in December 2013.

She had to move back to South Sudan, this time to Morobo County, as life in the camp was difficult to endure, with challenges ranging from limited relief ratios, a lack of water, firewood and education for her kids.

“A person receives a food ratio of 6 kilograms of grains for a whole month. Women often spend precarious nights at water points to get single jerrycans of water for their families.”

However, her dreams for a better life have become at least temporarily shattered as the same difficulties she experienced in Uganda have traced her back home.

“Life here is no different. My children are not going to school anymore,” Miss Gire said. “People say education helps shape human minds, and without it, I am heading towards raising children who may become unable to fend for themselves.”

Her family was self-reliant before the conflict erupted, but the war plunged her and her family into destitution and beggary. 

“We used to have enough food as we cultivated our own farms, raised enough chicken and goats for our diet, as well as sold the surplus to meet the costs of education, health and other necessities. But that is no more”.

Not being able to live a life of joy and plenty, children have become a liability both to themselves and to their parents.

“Our children are getting lost to the war by resorting to antisocial behaviours such as drinking alcohol and using marijuana and other types of drugs. Others have become thieves, busybodies and nightclub goers,” she laments. “Girls as young as 14 years get married!”

Miss Gire says something should be done to restore sanity to her motherland to enable the South Sudanese to live a life that guarantees prosperity for all.

“I am appealing to the UN to help South Sudan, so that we shall not end up dying silently in the bushes with the feeling that no one seems to care about us,” she said.

She then urged non-governmental organizations, UN agencies and government departments to come to the rescue of those who have returned home by giving them food, carpets, farming implements, medicines, cooking utensils and blankets, adding that most of the returnees have had their houses either burnt down or vandalized while they have been away.

But against all odds, Betty Gire remains hopeful.

“What you are doing is a contribution to building the peace we are yearning for, but I would like the UN to talk to the parties to end the war and bring lasting peace by implementing the peace agreement in letter and spirit, so that the signed peace will translate into tangible dividends,” Miss Gire said.

“We have signed peace, and if it can be followed by the implementation of all the provisions enshrined in the document, we the opposition will accept it wholeheartedly,” said David Lisi, Deputy Governor of the opposition in the Yei River area.

UN peacekeepers recently visited Panyume to assess the security and humanitarian situation, as well as inform local communities about the content of the revitalized peace agreement.