Leer, South Sudan

Last updated
Leer
South Sudan adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Leer
Location in South Sudan
Coordinates: 8°17′52″N30°08′51″E / 8.297855°N 30.147525°E / 8.297855; 30.147525
Country Flag of South Sudan.svg South Sudan
Region Greater Upper Nile
State Unity State
County Leer County
Population
 (2021)[ citation needed ]
  Total100,722
Time zone UTC+2 (CAT)

Leer (or Ler) is a town in the Leer County of Unity State in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan. It is the capital of Leer County and was the capital of the former Southern Liech State. It is the most densely populated county in South Sudan.

Contents

Location

Leer is in Dok Nuer territory. [1] It is located in Block 5A, an important oil-producing area in the north of South Sudan. [2] Leer is a 1.5-hour flight from Juba or a two-day bus drive from Juba, the capital of South Sudan. The roads are not usable in the rainy season, when the only means of travel is by boat on the River Nile. [3] There are no commercial flights to Leer, only aircraft contracted by the World Food Programme or missionary organizations like the Mission Aviation Fellowship fly in to support the work of humanitarian workers and to develop the Christian church which is growing rapidly. Leer County has been described as "a sprawling, flat, marshland littered with oil fields". [4]

Civil war

The Second Sudanese Civil War broke out in 1983 and the break-away Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) captured Leer in March 1986. Later the government-backed South Sudan Defense Forces (SSDF) under Riek Machar regained control of Block 5A. Unlike other oilfields, there was no forcible displacement of the civilian population until about 1998, when a new consortium led by the Swedish company Lundin Petroleum started oil exploration. At that time a rival Nuer militia under Major General Paulino Matiep began attacking communities in the block, including Leer. [1]

In a series of attacks on Leer starting in April 1998, the Paulino Matiep forces burned the roof of the large brick hospital, destroyed the Catholic church, burned the market and caused much other damage. Later the hospital was razed to the ground. By July 1998, 250 houses, fifty shops, and 2,500 cattle compounds had been destroyed in Leer town. The Matiep forces stole or killed cattle and made women act as porters. By December 1998 the WFP said that Leer, which had once been a center for food and health services, had become a ghost town. Riek Machar's SSDF forces became disillusioned with the government and turned to the SPLA. [1]

In July 1999 the government considered that the block had been cleared of the "rebel" SSIM/A forces. The area was being held by the Sudanese Armed Forces and Matiep's militia. However, the SSDF under Commander Tito Biel had obtained ammunition from their former rivals the SPLA and that month went on the offensive north to Leer, and then on to Duar, Koch, Boaw, and Nhialdiu. In September 1999 the SSDF lost Leer and were unable to retake the town. [2] Later the government again lost control. Despite a cease-fire, in January 2003 the Sudan Government recaptured Leer in a drive to clear the road south from Bentiu via Koch and Leer to the port of Adok on the Nile. The attack appeared to be part of a fresh drive to clear the area for oil exploitation. [5] After signature of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, refugees gradually began to return. [6]

Economy

The low-lying country around Ler is subject to flooding in the later part of the rainy season, so crops must be planted early. Alternative sources of food if the floods arrive too soon include hunting, fishing and collection of edible wild plants. [7] A woman selling milk at the Leer town market in 2010 reported earning the equivalent of $US7 per day, enough to buy sorghum to feed her family in Bathjoop cattle camp, 30 kilometres (19 mi) away. [8]

Naath FM, the only community radio station in Leer County, was officially launched in January 2009 although it had already been broadcasting for a year. "Naath" means "citizen" in the language of the local Nuer people. [4] Security is still poor. On 12 May 2011 recently planted landmines in the road from Leer to Bentiu exploded, destroying two vehicles, killing three people and seriously injured others. The border with Sudan to the north was blocked, causing shortages of supplies, and there were rumors that militias were moving south through the county. [9]

Health and education

As of 2010, Médecins Sans Frontières was running a large hospital in Leer with about 150 national staff, eight expatriate staff, and three regional staff. The hospital has an outpatient department, a medical and surgical inpatient department, an operating theatre, a maternity and antenatal care unit, a therapeutic feeding center, a tuberculosis program and a laboratory. [6] The hospital was ransacked and destroyed in 2014, after violence forced its evacuation. [10]

The hip-hop star Emmanuel Jal was born in Leer in the early 1980s, taken from his family to serve as a boy soldier and later helped to move out of the country to Nairobi where he began his musical career. Jal has funded a charity to build and run The Emma Academy, a school in Leer. [11]

Leer Primary School, with 4 classrooms, is attended by over 2,000 children. Most of the classes are taught under the trees. Leer Primary school was built in 1961 and was officially opened in 1962. It had enrolled pupils from The Missionary Leer Elementary school at Reek Yuol.

Jal's GUA Africa charity will build five new classrooms for the primary school. [3] In phase 2 of the project, GUA hopes to build Leer's first ever secondary school. [12]

Notable people

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Sudan Liberation Movement</span> South Sudanese guerrilla organisation (1999-present)

The South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM) is an armed group that operates in the Upper Nile Region of South Sudan. The group's creation was announced in November 1999 by people of the Nuer ethnicity who were in both the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the government-allied South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF) gathered in Waat. The SSLM was declared to be unaligned in the Second Sudanese Civil War, then entering its sixteenth year. The name "South Sudan Liberation Movement" was decided upon the next year, borrowing from the earlier Southern Sudan Liberation Movement, which existed in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riek Machar</span> South Sudanese politician (born 1952)

Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon is a South Sudanese politician who has served as the First Vice President of South Sudan since 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bentiu</span> City in Greater Upper Nile, South Sudan

Bentiu, also spelled Bantiu, is a city in South Sudan. It is the capital of Unity State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Sudan People's Defence Forces</span> Combined military forces of South Sudan

The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a key participant of the Second Sudanese Civil War, led by John Garang. After Garang's death in 2005, Salva Kiir was named the SPLA's new Commander-in-Chief. As of 2010, the SPLA was divided into divisions of 10,000–14,000 soldiers.

Peter Gatdet Yak, better known as Peter Gadet, was a South Sudanese general and SPLA commander who became the leader of the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), a rebel movement in South Sudan.

The history of South Sudan comprises the history of the territory of present-day South Sudan and the peoples inhabiting the region.

Paulino Matip Nhial, or Matiep Nhial, was a military leader and politician in South Sudan.

The Juba Declaration of 8 January 2006, formally the Juba Declaration on Unity and Integration between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) And the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF) 8 January 2006, laid out the basis for unifying rival military forces in South Sudan following the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War in January 2005.

Gordon Kong Chuol is a former militia commander in South Sudan, who fought for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and later for the forces led by Riek Machar during the Second Sudanese Civil War.

Mayom is a community in the Mayom County of Unity State, in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan. It is located west of Bentiu. It is the headquarters of Mayom County.

Major General Yohannes Yual Both was a leader of the South Sudan Defense Forces whose mobile forces gave the Sudan People's Liberation Army considerable difficulty during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005).

Tito Biel Chuor was a high-ranking commander in the South Sudan Defense Forces (SSDF) during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Block 5A, South Sudan</span> Petroleum concession of South Sudan

Block 5A is an oil concession in South Sudan. After oil field development began during the Second Sudanese Civil War, Block 5A was the scene of extensive fighting as rival militias struggled for control. Out of an original population of 240,000, an estimated 12,000 were killed or died of starvation and 160,000 were displaced by force. Production started in 2006. There is evidence that the environmentally sensitive marshlands beside the Nile are becoming polluted.

Duar is a large village in the Guit County of Unity State, in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan. It is on the main oil road leading south from Bentiu, and is close to the Thar Jath Central Processing Facility in the Block 5A oil concession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Sudanese Civil War</span> 2013–2020 civil war in South Sudan

The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In December 2013, President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état. Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Fighting broke out between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside the South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

The 2014 Bentiu massacre occurred on 15 April 2014 in the town of Bentiu, in the north of South Sudan, during the South Sudanese Civil War. The attack was described by The Economist as the "worst massacre" of the civil war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition</span> Political party in South Sudan

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, also known as the anti-governmental forces (AGF), is a mainly South Sudanese political party and rebel group that split from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in 2013, due to political tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar over leadership of the SPLM. Tensions grew between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar and South Sudan plunged into the South Sudanese Civil War.

Peter Par Jiek was a brigadier general of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and veteran of the Second Sudanese Civil War. In the course of that conflict, Par fought under Riek Machar with several rebel and pro-government groups, and eventually became a powerful militia commander in Unity State. In that region, he established his own fiefdom and gained some notoriety for his rivalry with another rebel leader, Peter Gadet. Even though he had followed Machar during the whole Second Sudanese Civil War until 2005, Par sided with President Salva Kiir Mayardit upon the outbreak of the South Sudanese Civil War in 2013. Leading pro-government counter-insurgency forces in Wau State since 2014, Par was eventually ambushed and killed by SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Machar in 2017.

The War of the Peters was a conflict primarily fought between the forces of Peter Par Jiek and Peter Gadet from June 2000 to August 2001 in Unity State, Sudan. Though both were leaders of local branches of larger rebel groups that were involved in the Second Sudanese Civil War, the confrontation between the two commanders was essentially a private war. As Par and Gadet battled each other, the Sudanese government exploited the inter-rebel conflict as part of a divide and rule strategy, aimed at weakening the rebellion at large and allowing for the extraction of valuable oil in Unity State. In the end, Gadet and Par reconciled when their respective superiors agreed to merge the SPDF and SPLA.

The disarmament of the Lou Nuer was a forcible disarmament campaign undertaken by the SPLA in Southern Sudan in December 2005. While other groups had been peacefully disarmed, the Lou section of the Nuer in Northern Jonglei State refused to comply. The SPLA organized a force under Peter Bol Kong to forcibly disarm the Lou Nuer, whose White Army resisted until a defeat in the battle of Motot, after which they fled the area.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. 2003. Retrieved 2011-08-04.
  2. 1 2 "OIL-CAUSED REALIGNMENT OF SOUTHERN REBEL FORCES AND ESCALATION OF WAR, LATE 1999". Human Rights Watch. November 24, 2003. Retrieved 2011-08-04.
  3. 1 2 "Emma Academy Project Proposal" (PDF). GUA. 2010. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  4. 1 2 "Naath FM Radio Station officially launched in Leer County, Southern Sudan". Lou Nuer. March 6, 2009. Retrieved 2011-08-04.
  5. Eric Reeves (January 27, 2003). "Khartoum captures Leer in an accelerating offensive in Sudan's oil regions" . Retrieved 2011-08-04.
  6. 1 2 "AUSTRALIAN NURSE VICTORIA MOWAT WRITES FROM SOUTH SUDAN". Médecins Sans Frontières Australia. 2010-03-17. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-08-04.
  7. "1991 / 92 Needs Assessment for SPLA-Held Southern Sudan". UNICEF. 1992. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  8. Bonifacio Taban Kuich (December 22, 2010). "Unity State: Leer county women raise funds from small businesses". Bnai Darfur. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  9. "Open letter of the Comboni Missionaries and Comboni Missionaries Sisters of Leer on the current situation of South Sudan". 1 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  10. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : South Sudan: Leer Hospital Is Destroyed. YouTube .
  11. "Emmanuel Jal". 46664 ambassadors. Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  12. "emma academy". GUA. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-08-03.

Further reading