Along with the threat of ambushes and kidnappings, the UN also has to deal with atrocious road conditions in South Sudan, says NZDF officer, Major Stephen Challies. Picture / supplied
Along with the threat of ambushes and kidnappings, the UN also has to deal with atrocious road conditions in South Sudan, says NZDF officer, Major Stephen Challies. Picture / supplied
A senior Kiwi soldier serving as a United Nations peacekeeper in the world's youngest nation, war-torn South Sudan, hopes a shaky regional ceasefire will hold and terrified locals can start rebuilding their lives.
Armed attacks by anti-government forces and local warlords, aid worker kidnappings, and the gunpoint recruitment of boysoldiers, kicked off in the Western Equatoria region, close to South Sudan's western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, around the time Major Stephen Challies landed in April.
The 37-year Army veteran of Angola, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and East Timor is posted in the town of Yambio as a military liaison officer with United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), tasked with protecting civilians, paving the way for international aid, and helping to monitor and investigate human rights abuses.
South Sudan has been ravaged by civil war for five years, forcing about 3.5 million people to flee their homes, with nearly half going to neighbouring Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia. It has also caused pockets of the turbulent African country to suffer from famine.
Challies' primary focus has been providing security to the local, predominantly Azande, populace amid the spiralling violence and the worsening humanitarian crisis.
"It's been an interesting few months," Challies told the Herald from his field office in Yambio.
"If the people feel secure, they can get on with their lives. But as soon as there's any smell of trouble, they will up sticks, grab their sleeping mats, and just go."
Along with the threat of ambushes and kidnappings, the UN also has to deal with atrocious road conditions in South Sudan, says NZDF officer, Major Stephen Challis. Picture / supplied
Various factions, either aligned with the Juba-based Government or the Sudan People's Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) group, along with assorted rogue bandits, seem intent on continued violence.
A ceasefire, or tentative peace process over the past 2-3 weeks, has brought some calm, but Challies, and locals, know it could erupt again at any time.
Earlier this month, Challies led a 25-vehicle convoy along perilous dirt roads to the small border town of Tumbura, where SPLA-IO commander James Nando has been looking to muscle in. In May, seven World Vision aid workers were abducted by armed rebels along the same Yambio – Tumbura road.
While Challies was in town, intelligence tipped him off to an imminent attack on Tumbura.
Challies, 53, and his UN firepower dug in and waited for a raid that thankfully never came.
"I guess [Nando] knows what he has to go after and probably won't want to take us on directly," Challies said.
On his patch, kidnappings are a constant threat.
Challies has been monitoring SPLA-IO raids on villages where dozens of young men are rounded up and forced to fight in armed militias.
"We know exactly how many have gone from where, and when, and now it's getting to the commanders to say, 'C'mon, release these people'. That is a long but important process for us," he said.
The fertile Western Equatoria state, alike other areas of South Sudan, offers rich farmland, and a subsistence lifestyle. Land is there for the taking. A teak plantation run by British aristocrat Charlie Tryon, godson of Prince Charles, employs 1000 people.
When stability comes to South Sudan, and along with it increased infrastructure and governance, Christchurch-born Challies believes it could flourish.
"I can see within 10-15 years some big companies move in here. It's resource-rich in so many ways," he said.
"I have such a huge admiration for Africa and its people, and it's heartening to see the resilience of the South Sudanese despite what they've been through. They want nothing other than a better life for themselves and their communities."
