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Southern Sudan, an Inflammable Gunpowder Barrel By: Deng Mulwal
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Jun 3, 2009 - 9:19:18 AM

Southern Sudan , an Inflammable Gunpowder Barrel

By: Deng Mulwal

 

According to Director of Community Security and Arms Control Bureau in South Sudan , there are about two million small arms in the hands of civilians in the South. This comes at a time when the tribal clashes escalated between the region's citizens the latest of which is the clashes of last week in Jonglei area as Murle are still under continuous attacks from SPLA elements and others, nearing to be a kind of genocide.
A high level southern official stated that despite the intensive arm collecting campaigns conducted by GoSS still the uncollected arms are large.


It is clear that some elements within GoSS are working to hinder the process of arms collection from specific tribes and collecting it from others and this exactly is the main cause of the insecurity crisis dominating southern
Sudan .

 

Peacekeepers officially admit the existence of weapons in the hands of civilians, but they cannot interfere because their mandate is to avoid confrontations between the CPA parties, pointing out that the arms collection is the responsibility of GoSS.

 

No doubt, if we took the figures confirmed by the Director of Community Security and Arms Control Bureau in South Sudan (about 2 million small arms), in a simple calculation we will come out with a horrible result about the future of security and stability in the South.
Comparing the uncollected arms (2 million) with the population of
South Sudan according to the latest census (8 million) means that almost quarter of the citizens have arms in their hands.
If we add to that the arms in the hands of more than 150,000 SPLA elements who are authorized to possess arms, we can say that
Southern Sudan region is transformed to an ammunition and gun arsenal and an inflammable gunpowder barrel.

 

In the light of the tribal clashes escalation witnessed these days, the region is subjected to explosion at any time.

Does SPLM consider this dangerous situation or is it still busy with the issue of democratic transformation and the dreams of its leaders to overwhelm the greater Khartoum constituencies?

 



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