Hunger, Squalor Mar South Sudan Post-War Unification Efforts

Rebel fighters hold up their rifles as they walk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. File. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo
Rebel fighters hold up their rifles as they walk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. File. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo
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Hunger, Squalor Mar South Sudan Post-War Unification Efforts

Rebel fighters hold up their rifles as they walk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. File. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo
Rebel fighters hold up their rifles as they walk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. File. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo

Here in crowded camps in South Sudan, former enemies are meant to be joining forces after a five-year civil war so they can help the shattered country recover. But they can barely find enough food.

The Associated Press (AP) spoke to women, both former rebel fighters and government troops, who are among tens of thousands of people being trained as a unified security force. It's meant to be a major step in the 2018 peace deal ending the war that killed nearly 400,000 people.

Visits to a handful of camps found squalid conditions, with food supplies expired or stolen by corruption. With few sanitary products available, the women use random pieces of cloth, even strips of bedsheets, for their periods.

While some seek informal work in nearby communities to get by, the threat of sexual assault — even by male trainees — makes others wary of venturing too far.

“I’m describing the situation as disgusting,” said Nyaluel Makuei. The 36-year-old mother of seven said she has dedicated her life to serving her country, but she finds little support now.

“Even if you get a piece of soap you still stink and smell bad," she said. “Some of our sisters left the center because of that situation.” At times, she said, meals are just porridge mixed with salt to satisfy hunger because the camp’s supply of beans turned rancid.

The women who once fought on opposing sides now identify themselves as members of South Sudan’s unified force, an effort to leave their past behind. But they are reminded of their country’s persistent troubles — insecurity, graft, poverty — at every turn.

Some in the international community warn that South Sudan’s implementation of the peace deal is in peril. A United Nations panel of experts this year said the training camps host far fewer people than the goal of 83,000, and government soldiers make up a “significantly smaller percentage” than former rebel fighters.

Most government forces remain in barracks elsewhere.

“Many key commanders instructed their forces to remain outside of the security reunification process, retain their weapons and stand ready to re-engage in active fighting,” the UN report said.

Instruction in the training camps is limited to “basic moral orientation, rather than any substantive military training,” it added.

Meanwhile, vicious intercommunal fighting in parts of South Sudan has killed hundreds of people this year. A well-trained, properly provisioned security force is needed.

“I am acutely aware that the peace implementation remains painfully slow and far below your expectations,” President Salva Kiir said last month.

According to AP, at the Toufigia police training center in Malakal, which hosts more than 3,000 people, women reported selling tea or making charcoal to find money to survive.

Veronica Akiij, 41, said she decided to work as a tea lady to support her family. Awin Deng, 39, said she stayed up at night baking bread to sell. She hopes to be part of the first batch of police officers to graduate from training but has seven children to support.

“We are tired of this situation,” said Nyakuma Oyen, 25.

During a recent tour of the training sites, Defense Minister Angelina Teny acknowledged the challenges.

“It is not your fault, because 1,000 South Sudanese pounds ($7) cannot buy you a sack of flour. The situation is forcing you to do that,” she said of the informal work.

South Sudan’s civil war largely destroyed the health system and other basic services, leaving women especially exposed. Human rights groups and medical charities reported many women were raped after going out to find water or wood.

That threat remains, even for the trainees.



JD Vance Says US at War with Iran's Nuclear Program, Not Iran

Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
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JD Vance Says US at War with Iran's Nuclear Program, Not Iran

Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)

Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday the US was not at war with Iran but at war with its nuclear program, adding the program had been pushed back by a very long time due to American strikes ordered by President Donald Trump.

Trump said he had "obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites in strikes overnight with massive bunker-busting bombs, joining Israel's assault against its Middle East rival in a significant new escalation of conflict in the region.

"We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program," Vance said in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" show, Reuters reported.

"I think that we have really pushed their program back by a very long time. I think that it's going to be many, many years before the Iranians are going to be able to develop a nuclear weapon."

Vance accused Iran of not negotiating in good faith, which he said served as a catalyst for US strikes. The US had been in diplomatic talks with Iran about Tehran's nuclear program.

Tehran vowed to defend itself while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely alarmed" by the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

"We don't want a regime change," Vance added. "We do not want to protract this... We want to end the nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here."

Vance said Trump made the final decision to strike Iran right before the strikes took place and that Washington has received some "indirect" messages from Tehran since the strikes.

Vance said the US "had no interest in boots on the ground."

Trump said on Friday he was going to decide in the next two weeks about direct US involvement in the Israel-Iran war which began with Israel's attacks on Iran on June 13. The war has raised alarm in a region already on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023.

US ally Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons and says it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.

Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not.

Many Democratic US lawmakers said Trump's actions were unconstitutional and that it was the US Congress that had the power to declare war on foreign countries.

Vance responded to that criticism by saying Trump had "clear authority to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."