“We are not just numbers. We are the ones losing our homes, being raped, watching our children suffer.”
Awut Mabior is a mother and community leader in Warrap, one of the states in South Sudan most heavily impacted by intercommunal conflict. For too long, she has watched women carry the weight of war in silence. Now, she is speaking out, not just in sorrow but with strength – the strength of women who are still standing, still hoping, and still calling for justice.
“It’s women and children who carry the worst pain in this conflict. That’s why we’re begging the government and peace partners to come and see our plight, listen to us, and help us.”
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan has heard her call, offering a glimmer of hope in a region where too many families have endured the sounds of gunfire and the pain of sudden loss.
The peacekeeping mission has launched a new project to help equip local communities with the skills and tools to better protect themselves by preventing conflict, resolving grievances, and building peace. The project, which will be delivered by Community Initiative Development Agency, includes establishing 10 community-based protection networks to help the government and security services respond quicker and more effectively to emerging threats.
It will also build the capacity of civil society members to monitor the security situation and human rights abuses, provide early warning of violence to enable rapid responses, promote reconciliation among warring communities, and engage with local authorities and security services.
“The aim is to help strengthen protection of civilians, enhance accountability mechanisms for past atrocities, and create a safe and open civic space where communities can actively engage and participate in governance, policy and decision-making processes,” says the UNMISS Head of the Warrap Field Office, Anastasie Mukangarambe.
The project also includes providing psychosocial support, access to basic services, and a platform for displaced people returning to the area to share their experiences and find healing together.
“We’re working to protect civilians from violence and to help returnees get back on their feet, especially those who’ve come home with nothing. We also want to open the civic space; so that citizens, especially community organizations, can be part of the decisions that affect their lives,” said Gabriel Pap, from the Community Initiative Development Agency.
The challenges are multiple and immense in this area, which is plagued by deadly cattle raiding, revenge killings, a lack of basic services, economic crisis, influx of refugees from the Sudan war, and severe flooding which has displaced around 500,000 people.
For those living with disabilities, the struggle is even more invisible. When violence erupts, they are often the ones left behind—without shelter, without protection, and without a way out.
“When the fighting starts, we can’t run. We have no way to escape, “says William Deng Nhial, a disability rights advocate. “Just last month, one of our members was shot and killed in his shelter. No one came. No one warned us.”
Representing state authorities, Benson Bol Yak says enough is enough.
“We know who is suffering. It’s the elderly, the women, the children, people who have nothing to do with the fighting. Why should their homes be burned? Why should they be killed?” he says. “This project must reach every single person who needs our help.’
In South Sudan, where conflict has written too many chapters of pain, this new project may not erase the past, but it does open a new page. One where people are not just victims, but agents of change. Where voices long ignored are finally heard. And where hope, fragile as it may be, is once again possible.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).