South Sudan: With independence come new struggles

City-based aid organisation Mercy Corps's links with South Sudan stretch back over 25 years. Now, says chairman Jock Encombe, we all have an interest in this fledgling nation's future

BACK in late March I sat on a plastic chair drinking the best cup of coffee I've ever had. It wasn't in Milan or even Edinburgh. I was in Agok Market in Abyei province, close to the border of what last weekend became the new nation of South Sudan.

The coffee - a traditional Dinka brew mixed with ginger and cardamom - brought on a wonderful combination of alertness and calm. As we drank, Nyankiir, the caf owner, told me about her plans to expand her business. Her caf restaurant was financed by a co-operative scheme that provides finance to small business start-ups as well as giving attractive returns to investors - an initiative that the organisation I chair, Mercy Corps, helped set in motion.

Now, four months on, I sit sipping distinctly ordinary coffee back in my Edinburgh home. But Nyankiir's whereabouts, like tens of thousands of her fellow citizens, are unknown after weeks of violence and turmoil shook the province as the July 9 date for South Sudan's independence grew closer.

It's hard to imagine, but while we continue the academic debate for and against independence here in Scotland, the new nation of South Sudan saw independence become a reality last Saturday, amid violence and tension that has caused havoc for thousands.

The birth of South Sudan was an historic event: the culmination of a six-year process that ended a decades-long brutal civil war, and the first time that Africans have determined their own national borders. The enthusiasm among freedom-hungry South Sudanese is palpable, but it's clear that independence is just the beginning - not the end - of the new nation's struggles.

When I visited South Sudan earlier this year it was plain to see that this new country will be one of the poorest in the world with almost no roads, sporadic electricity, and a woefully inadequate number of schools and hospitals. The human toll of poverty is painfully clear: more than a quarter of South Sudan's eight million people do not have enough food, and more women die in childbirth than almost anywhere else in the world.

Conflict exacerbates these challenges; this has been especially true in recent weeks as violence has erupted along the border with Sudan. More than 100,000 people fled from the disputed Abyei region, where it is hoped that a tentative peace agreement and Ethiopian troops can halt recent fighting. Fighting in Southern Kordofan State - part of the North - made things worse, and cattle rustling, heavily armed rogue militias and crime have added to the violent mix. As a result of conflict, trade has ground to a halt, creating shortages of food and fuel.

These challenges have led many analysts to call South Sudan "the next failed state." At best, I think they're giving up way too soon; at worst, they're creating a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Mercy Corps has worked in Sudan since 1985 helping people and government institutions to improve basic health, education, access to water and sanitation. We know that progress is possible. In my visit I saw for myself that the people of South Sudan themselves - especially young people - are the nation's best hope for the future.

For that hope to become reality, certain key issues need to be addressed: the new nation must build on the hopes, ideas, priorities and resilience of its people; its citizens and government must be partners moving forward together; private investment must be encouraged to help it grow; and most importantly, all voices must be included, so that everyone can be part of the transformation.

Finally, as attention is drawn to South Sudan, we must not forget people in the north. Whether they are northern or southern, or of Arab or of African descent, the Sudanese people are - above all - mothers, fathers and children who deserve a future.

As this new nation is born, the international community must step up and match the positive spirit that's alive in South Sudan.

I'm not discounting the challenges: they're very real. But as Scots we surely must understand just how much national pride matters and how much people can achieve when they're building something new together.

As I sit here in Edinburgh sipping my underwhelming coffee, I can't help but feel that with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, a brighter future is waiting for the brave people of South Sudan.

Poverty hinders potential

SOUTH Sudan is the world's newest nation, but its birth has been far from pain-free.

Trouble flared in Sudan soon after it gained freedom from joint British and Egyptian rule in the 1950s, with disputes between the largely Muslim Arab north and the Christian Nilotes of the south, and ethnic and political differences.

The south was eventually given a degree of control over its own affairs. However, a government decision in the Eighties to cancel the agreement sparked war that raged for 22 years. An estimated 2.5 million lives were lost during the conflict and hundreds of thousands were displaced.

Oil divided the nation too. Most of Sudan's oil is in the south yet is exported through the north. It meant that while Khartoum boasted oil wealth, the south remained entrenched in poverty.

A referendum in January saw 98.8 per cent of South Sudanese people opt for independence. Ties were finally severed last weekend sparking celebrations.

South Sudan is blessed with an estimated seven billion barrels of oil and has bountiful timber, lush land and rich minerals. Not surprisingly within days of independence, international firms had moved to secure deals to tap into the energy resource.

There is, however, enormous social deprivation in the area which organisations like Edinburgh-based Mercy Corps, with offices in Sciennes, have worked for years to help tackle.

The challenges are massive: South Sudan is the size of France yet has only 50 miles of paved roads. More women die in childbirth there than anywhere else in the world, while one in 12 of the country's children fail to survive to mark their first birthday.

• Find out more about Mercy Corps at www.mercycorps.org.uk