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Pibor Numbers Game: UN vs Murle

Lekuangole
"The UN's top official in South Sudan said 'no evidence' had been found of reported mass killings, but warned that 60,000 people were in urgent need of aid.

Hilde Johnson, UN Special Representative for South Sudan, said reports that over 3,000 people were killed last week when thousands of armed youths attacked the Pibor region of Jonglei state appeared to be a false alarm.

'Importantly, we found no evidence that support those numbers,' she said following a visit to affected areas where up to 8,000 rampaging armed youths set homes on fire and forced thousands to flee."

link

Comment #1: 
Getting accurate numbers of anything in Southern Sudan is next to impossible.  I will give you that.

Comment #2: 
t seems odd that they dismiss the reports of 3000 dead without giving an estimate of their own.  

Comment #3: 
I'm probably to close to look at the situation objectively.  However, I'm very aware of how the UN operates in Sudan.  They need huge numbers to get the money to support their relief operations.  So without counting and only estimating they throw out a figure of 60,000 to 100,000 displaced and in urgent need of so many things.  I am not denying that there are alot of people in need. 

My complaint is how can they quickly jump to a figure of these proportions and yet after more than a week since the fighting they can not come up with a very good estimate of the actuall number dead.  

#4 My last comment:  
Something is just not right.  As my wife might say: some one is trying to cover our eyes.  Are the UN & RoSS trying to cover up that they may have not contained the situation quite as well as they would have liked?  Or is the Murle community trying to beef up numbers for the sake of getting attention?  My bet is on the UN.  They have a longer track record of coming up with funny numbers. 

Filed under  //  3000   Jonglei   Lou   Murle   Nuer   Pibor   Sudan   UN   aid   attack   children   count   death   killing   mass   violence   women  
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Nyerdet

I did this some time back. Trying to figure if I can use it for anything.  Would go great on a T-shirt, poster or even a body tattoo.  Maybe that is what I should do with it.:) Will need to do one of Abarizaa as well if that is the case.;)

Nyerdet

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Boredom

I get distracted easily. Today was a bit of a slow day and this is about all I got accomplished.

Motherchild

Filed under  //  art   boredom   design   drawing   kenya   line  
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Mohawks

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I cut the boys hair last night. Was a fun experiment in shaving. They both wanted mohawks so I tried to oblige. Not quite punk rock but they thought it was cool. Unfortunately the teachers at school did not. They called asking me to please finish the job I started. At least I got some photos before they went bald.

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A refund

2020605368

I paid some taxes this year. The government was nice enough to refund me $1.41 which I overpaid. It only cost them $0.98 to send me the check overseas. I am going to cash the check as well. Although my bank may refuse because the amount of the check probably won't justify a transfer. Anyhow the point of this post is that I find the whole thing slightly ridiculous. Or the government hopes I don't bother to cash it cause it seems so small along with the millions of others they send checks to and maybe they get some fun money to play with.

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Stop Diarrhea!

When I first came to Kenya I was working with an NGO that was running various health related programs in Southern Sudan.  One of these programs focused on Hygene and Sanitation.  Due to my "graphic" skills I was conscripted (happily) into the task of designing some Hygene promotion t-shirts to be distributed to the communities.

Here are the samples I made for consideration.  The winner of the three has a front and back view of the t-shirt design.  In later editions of the shirt, the powers that were decided to remove the offending image from the front.  The reasoning I was given was that it didn't actually look like diarrhea.  

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Filed under  //  africa   design   diarrhea   health   juba   sick   sickenes   southern   southern sudan   stop   sudan  
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Nuer & Murle Clashes

Southern Sudan is a new nation, but it seems old habits die hard.  

There has been ongoing conflict between the Lou Nuer and the Murle communities since the early part of this year.  Actually since what seems like forever, but the fighting had died down for a while.  Recent attacks between the two groups have been escalating.  

In June, Nuer fighters attacked a number of locations in Pibor county killing around a 1000 people, displacing thousands, stealing cattle, and abducting women and children.  Two weeks ago Murle i attacked  several locations in Uror County, killing around 650 people, displacing thousands, stealing cattle and abducting women and children as well.  

Each community is giving tit for tat and each time the numbers rise and the violence gets worse.

On Friday last week I saw this tweet:

@estoni Evacuated staff from  Pibor camp today. Nuer retribution raid on Murle is on its way. There is great fear of more bloodshed 

MSF normally won't make a major decision like that unless they are strongly convinced something is going to happen.

People on all sides have been aware that another fight is going to take place. For the past week there have been rumors of Nuer gathering around Akobo and planning a large assault on Pibor.   The UN has posted soldiers in a few locations with "chapter 7" authority (I believe this means they can shoot guns). The SPLA has apparently dispatched soldiers in some areas as well.  Somehow it just seems to little and too late.

Tonight I got information about fighting taking place less than two hours away by foot from Pibor town.  I also heard that MSF is completely evacuating all staff out of PIbor first thing tomorrow morning. 

I fear for the next few days.  There is a potential for the death of many.  What seems frustrating is that this has been known beforehand and very little has been done to try and stop it. 

Tonight my heart is sad for Jonglei.

Filed under  //  Fight   Murle   Nuer   abducted   akobo   anyuak   bor   cattle   children   clash   clashes   dead   dinka   genocide   jonglei   juba   pibor   south   southern   sudan   tribal   women  
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Sudanese show in nairobi

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My wife just performed a few songs at a sudanese show in nairobi. This is my very poor video of part of her first song. I wanted to get closer but was keeping an eye on some valuables. Is ok cause there is much better videos on the way coming.

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Video Shoot

Today we are shooting some videos for some of Mary's songs. Is an interesting experience. Takes hours to get a few minutes of footage. Is good fun though. Will be nice to see the finished product.

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