Supporting Southern Sudan beyond the referendum

January's vote had enormous consequences for people across the country, and many people are concerned about insecurity across southern Sudan and for the safety of more than 1.5 million southern Sudanese who remain displaced in the north. People need urgent assurances that any violence will be addressed and that their rights will be protected.

At the same time tens of thousands of southern Sudanese who were displaced during the civil war have made the journey home during the last few months. Many more are expected to return following the referendum. Essential services such as schools are already overwhelmed by the existing population and will struggle to meet the additional demand. In addition, as people return to their villages, or if violence relating to the referendum causes further displacement, host communities may be unable to provide sufficient support leaving people without essentials such as food and shelter.

During the last two months of 2010 nearly 10,000 people arrived in Juba, southern Sudan’s principal city, from Khartoum with another 130,000 returning to elsewhere in southern Sudan. With essential services like schools and clinics already overstretched, southern Sudan will struggle to meet the needs of its swelling population.

In addition, many of those arriving from the north have brought little with them. While the Government of Southern Sudan and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees have organised temporary shelter in churches and school where people can stay for up to three days, as they return to their own villages, once they get there the communities there may struggle to support them.

At the same time, some areas of southern Sudan remain insecure. Over the last two years 360,000 people have been newly displaced and more than 2,500 killed within southern Sudan because of attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group and inter-tribal fighting.

In Darfur in western Sudan, almost eight years after fighting erupted more than two million people remain displaced from their homes and in dire need of external assistance.

Essential services like schools and hospitals in southern Sudan are already overstretched and so with the population expected to swell investment is desperately needed. Many southern Sudanese have been reluctant to return because of the lack of schools.

Christian Aid is supporting education across southern Sudan by funding the construction of essential school buildings and training teachers. This not only ensures that children do not miss school and receive a quality education, but ensures they have a safe place to go to each day.

Christian Aid’s partners have also helped many of the schools with which they work to access the World Food Programme’s school feeding programme ensuring that children get at least one nutritious meal every day.

In addition, Christian Aid is providing £14,000 of Code 1 funding for an ACT Alliance appeal that will ensure that family kits are positioned at key locations across southern Sudan and vulnerable border areas in the north.

At the moment essential needs are being met by people themselves, or by UNHCR and the Government of Southern Sudan. However, if a need emerges as people return to villages which may have insufficient resources to support them, or if people are displaced by violence around the referendum or other frequent disasters such as flooding, partners will be able to distribute these kits.

Christian Aid has worked in Sudan since the 1970s and has had a team working within the country since 2006. The country programme responds to emergencies, helps communities to develop more secure livelihoods and respond to the HIV pandemic and supports partners’ education programmes.

But equipping people to build a secure future beyond the referendum is critical and so Christian Aid will continue to work with organisations to support education, training, HIV awareness and access to credit – all interventions which put the power to choose their own future firmly in the hands of the people.

Advocacy is an important aspect of Christian Aid’s work on Sudan and we have been lobbying leaders in the UK and other countries who acted as guarantors of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on the need to support the peace process between north and south as well as the Darfur peace process.

Christian Aid is working with church leaders in Sudan to call for international support for the peace process so the humanitarian needs of vulnerable groups in the country can be addressed effectively.