Last month, South Sudan was the usual trap. In early September, a humanitarian worker was killed in crossfire at a food depot. At the end of that same week, a United Nations employee was assassinated in a health center in a camp for displaced people. A few days later, another aid worker was killed in an ambush on a highway in the north of the country. The three deceased were South Sudanese. South Sudan, the world's youngest state after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, has become the world's most dangerous country for humanitarian workers.
According to the US research group Aid Worker Security, which records attacks on humanitarian workers around the world, last year the African state led the list of most violent countries against employees of humanitarian organizations with 29 dead, 56 injured and 8 kidnapped.
This year, it continues to lead the list ahead of red zones such as Afghanistan, Syria, Ethiopia, Mali or Ukraine: of the 60 aid workers killed in the world in 2022, 16 died in South Sudan. In Afghanistan, the second country where the most aid workers have died since January, nine were killed and in the Ukrainian conflict, a country that breaks into the ranking as a novelty, there have been half a dozen casualties among humanitarian personnel.
Muzamil Sebi, head of Save the Children in South Sudan, does not believe that humanitarians are a direct target of the different sides of the South Sudanese conflict and points to the violent spiral in the country. “There is a lot of inter-community violence or armed groups that assault on the roads and sometimes humanitarian workers fall in the middle of a fight between two groups. Humanitarian workers work with the most vulnerable communities and the danger is there.”
In a country that has lived at war for almost 40 of the last 60 years, the proliferation of light weapons among civilians - it is common to see shepherds with a kalashnivov on their shoulders - and the enmity between ethnic groups historically opposed by theft of cattle or the occupation of land has generated a particularly dangerous context for those who work on the ground. Especially for local aid workers: 94% of those who died in the last decade in the country were South Sudanese.
A volatile political context explains the drift. After an open war broke out two years after independence, a papier-mâché peace agreement was signed at the end of 2018 which, far from ending the conflict, has fueled regional tensions between leaders of armed groups who feel neglected. Violence has become a way to claim power and money. In addition, cattle raids used as a weapon of war and a formula to weaken the political enemy, the appearance of criminal groups that take advantage of the security vacuum, and ethnic rivalries have generated a context of general insecurity.
The war in Ukraine has made the situation worse. In addition to the increase in food and fuel prices, significant amounts of humanitarian aid have been diverted to the Ukrainian conflict to the detriment of crises such as the one in South Sudan. This year, only 45% of the money needed to deal with the crisis has been received.
Esperanza Santos, head of mission in South Sudan for Doctors Without Borders, clarifies the danger for aid workers in a country where there is an average of ten daily deaths among the general population. “What is clear is that this country is dangerous and that violence is widespread and life is worth very little. There are many civilians dying every day from violence, humanitarian or not."
For Santos, it is also a problem of disregard for the work of NGOs by some actors in the conflict. Due to the country's economic and resource crisis, he explains, "the law of survival prevails more and more and there is little sense of respect for the community and the humanitarian, robberies against organizations, attacks on convoys and humanitarian warehouses (especially food warehouses) and the pressures and threats”.
But the attacks not only come from armed groups or bandits, they also come from politics. Humanitarian organizations are often perceived as a source of resources and their neutrality and independence are not always understood or respected.
In addition to pressure from communities, local authorities, public administrations or businessmen, humanitarian organizations must face extortion, bureaucratic obstacles and politicization attempts. A coordinator of an NGO in South Sudan with decades of experience in countries in crisis asks for anonymity to denounce the political use of hunger. “There is a savage manipulation of humanitarian aid, many times even forcing the displacement of civilians to one place or another as a factor in attracting humanitarian aid and the money and business that this means.”
The recent reports of sustained sexual abuse by humanitarian workers of women displaced by violence, some of them minors, has also aroused a negative view of some organizations among part of the population. A joint investigation by Al Jazeera and New Humanitarian uncovered that dozens of women had been subjected to sexual abuse "on a daily basis" by workers from organizations such as the World Food Program, the International Organization for Migration, World Vision or MSF.
The consequences of violence in the humanitarian sector affect the weakest. Following the September killings, Abel Whande, South Sudan director for CARE, warned of the impact that attacks on humanitarians could have for millions of people. “South Sudan,” he underlined, “is facing its worst hunger crisis since its independence 11 years ago. That people dedicated to lessening their suffering and supporting the most vulnerable continue to be killed is horrible. The inability to secure the lives of aid workers causes disruptions that can mean the difference between life and death for some. And this year, the effects of the war in Ukraine have complicated the situation with huge increases in the cost of food and fuel, causing more pain and suffering.
In addition, the worst flooding in years and a corrupt and ineffective government that fails to protect its citizens has created a dire situation for millions of people, dependent on the support of humanitarian workers. Without them, the situation will be even more unsustainable: almost 9 of the country's 12 million inhabitants, half of them children, need urgent humanitarian aid.
