Guess Who's Back

On the morning of the 18th of September I attended a meeting with the Police State Commissioner of the SSPS and this is where I first learned that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) had returned. He told me that the LRA had attacked the payam of Sakure which is located in Nzara County approximately 52 kilometres from Yambio and that one SPLA soldier had been killed and two wounded.

The LRA was supposed to be signing a peace agreement with the Government of Southern Sudan this last Wednesday, the day before the attack. Over the last few days I have attended several meetings with the Minister of Security for the Western Equatoria State, National Security, and the upper brass of the SSPS to obtain updates on the situation in Sakure. The most accurate information is that the LRA attacked the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) barracks in the early morning hours at approximately 0500. The belief is that they were there for weapons and ammunition. The SPLA were caught off guard and had to flee. Eventually they were able to regroup and force the LRA back over the border to the Congo.

One SPLA soldier was killed and another soldier along with a female were wounded. The UNMOS (United Nations Military Observers) Team Site Leader and I attended the local Yambio hospital to where they were taken to see if we could get more details on the incident. The injured female was the wife of an SPLA soldier and had taken a bullet to the upper thigh. The injured SPLA solider had three gun shot wounds to the neck, shoulder and hand. We spoke to the female first who was able to give us some information. We could not speak to the male soldier though. He was pretty messed up. He was just standing next to his bed staring straight ahead. His shirt was off and you could see the wounds to his neck, shoulder, and hand. It was a little odd. The wounds were exposed and you could see the flesh that had been ripped away from his shoulder due to the angle the bullet had entered, but he was not bleeding. When we left the room he followed us rocking back and forth shuffling his feet like a zombie. The doctor had to yell at him to go back to his bed which he finally did.

Through the information gathered, we learned that in addition to the mentioned casualties and wounded, when the LRA fled Sakure they burned several homes including the Sakure Chief’s home. A baby that was asleep in the Chief’s home died in the fire. In addition, 15 people, including adults and children, were abducted. 4 LRA were killed and 5 wounded. This information came from 2 abductees who had escaped and had been forced to carry the bodies. The LRA also attacked a village on the Congo side of the border. They raided a school there and it has been reported that approximately 50 children were abducted and several of them killed. There are now 350 displaced people that have relocated to Gangura approximately 30 kilometres from Yambio.

At this time it is business as usual for us. I am assuming that our security level will be raised again which will limit us on what medium and long range patrols we can do, but so far we have not received any direction.

Peace from Yambio,

Rory

(Photos from top to bottom: 1) SPLA soldier. The scarring on his head indicate that he is an established soldier, 2) Bullet holes at the SPLA barracks in Sakure, 3) Wounded Sakure villager 1, 4) Wounded Sakure villager 2, 5) Mohammed (aka Joseph) KONY - Commander of the Lord's Resistance Army. People worship him like a god and some believe that he has magical powers) - Photos are courtesy of Yambio Team Site UN Civil Affairs

Missed the Corn...But not the Kasava

Well, I am back from my first vacation and I have to say that 3 months is way too long to wait before taking a much needed break when you’re working 7 days a week. Croatia was exactly what I wanted and needed. I was able to do some touring and a lot of relaxing in the sun with an ice cold beer or vodka with orange juice. Actual real orange juice.

I arrived back at my team site late last week to find that shit had really hit the fan. I spoke of a traffic accident involving one of the UNMOS (UN Military Observers) and a local on a motorcycle on one of my previous blogs. When I left it appeared that everything was going to be fine and that the people that were supposed to be handling the situation were doing there job. It didn’t quite work out that way.

I returned to find out that the victim was pretty much forgotten about and that nobody had spoken to him or the family about the process and that the UN would conduct an investigation and that they had insurance to deal with this sort of thing. No one even spoke to him or his family updating him on what was going on. This is the job of our Security Personnel who is supposed to liaise with the investigators in Juba. Well this was not done. The victim obviously felt he was being forgotten and left to fend for himself. Especially when he took a turn for the worse and had to be rushed to Juba for special treatment. The interesting part of this is the victim also works for the government and I was told that his brother is an SPLA soldier which added more flavour to the whole fucked up situation.

The end result, the SSPS decided to begin looking for the UNMO driver to take him into custody. Luckily he was on vacation. They could not get to him so they seized the vehicle involved in the accident basically holding it for ransom. The UNMO Team Site Leader handed over the vehicle which probably should not have been done, however, given the SPLA flavor, it might have been the safest thing to do until the matter could be resolved. Some of these soldiers are well known in taking matters into their own hands and it happens all of the time. I have been told that the UNMO driver will now be transferred as he is at risk for retribution.

In addition to all of this, the day before I arrived back in Yambio, our Indian Army Radio Signals, who are also our reserve protection force, had weapons seized from them by National Security at the airstrip. Apparently they had the weapons in a box marked “radio equipment” and when asked what was inside, they said “radio equipment”. When the box was opened there were weapons. All the guns were seized by the SPLA and they arrested our security officer as well.

I received word of this in Juba where I had to stay for a night before heading to Yambio and met with the SPLA liaison officer while in Juba to try and figure out what was going on and see what I could do to help from Juba, which was not much. By the evening, the team in Yambio had the Security Officer released. He told us later that he had been threatened with torture and they took photographs of him sitting on top of the seized rifles.

So my first day back, I am told that I am to attend a meeting with the Governor of the Western Equatoria State with our UN Civilian Affairs staff to negotiate the release of this vehicle. I am not sure why given it had now become a political matter and not our mandate and, more importantly, not our vehicle. We showed up at this meeting only to find out that the Lady Governor wanted to discuss the weapons issue which we advised her that we could not discuss as we did not have the proper information…meeting over.

On top of all of this, I had a few significant personnel issues to deal with when I got back, that I can not really speak of now, but maybe later over beers. It was hard to come back after being away, but things are back to business as usual and I have to admit that I was kind of missing the corn…but not the kasava.

Getting balder and more grey every day,

Rory

(Photos from top to bottom: 1) My ride landing before my trip to Croatia, 2 & 3) View of Yambio from above, 4) UN Police Commissioner Kai Vitrup and I after a meeting, 5) Rovinj, Croatia)