MAF’s peace-promoting planes are helping the aviation organisation’s partners to visit some of the most war-torn regions in South Sudan.
According to the UN, the first five months of 2020 saw a 220% increase in incidents of intercommunal violence in South Sudan’s Jonglei State compared with the same period two years ago.
So, as part of its ongoing commitment to the country’s development, MAF transports teams from the Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund (POF) to some of South Sudan’s most violent areas.
The POF team, comprised mainly of representatives from the warring Dinka, Nuer and Murle tribes, mediates between the various groups, encouraging key community leaders to talk to each other and resolve problems without resorting to violence.
In December 2020, MAF flew the team to the towns of Pibor, Pieri and Lankien where, despite the Peace Agreement signed in August last year, communities have experienced some of the worst tribal fighting since the civil war started in 2013.
Team Leader Michael Comerford explained: ‘On MAF’s Pibor flight, you’ve got the Chief Administrator of Pibor and some government officials. They’re speaking with youths from the Murle tribe who are driving the violence.’
For POF personnel, these initiatives can represent a race against time because, when the rainy season ends and the roads become dry, those perpetrating the violence can travel more freely.
MAF also flew Comerford to Pieri to meet with the ‘Leopard Skin Chief’, a spiritual healer from the Nuer tribe. According to Comerford: ‘They are central in the peace agreement because they also commission violence.’
MAF later transported a government minister, two chiefs and a community leader to two other locations in Jonglei State.
Another MAF flight, this time in 2021, enabled Comerford and his colleagues to reach Rumbek, Lakes State, for a conference where armed youths from the Dinka Bor, Lual Nuer and Murle tribes finally met.
The three-day event proved groundbreaking when the various groups publicly agreed ‘to peacefully co-exist’. Before that, they had been involved in cattle raiding, revenge killing and child abduction.
What future peace in South Sudan might look like is unclear. Comerford says there’s a long road ahead, with POF ‘just finding its way through the cultural geography to try and facilitate peace’.
