Follow the dispatches from Warrior's Rob McKee as he travels across South Sudan inspecting the growing Warrior presence in this vast country:
Pastoralist tribes, whose lives are largely governed by a cattle-herding culture, inhabit much of South Sudan.
Cattle are currency in the world’s poorest country. They represent family status, and are used to settle land disputes and traditional court cases. They are also used as marriage dowries. However, the ownership of cattle is often the source of bloody ethnic and inter-communal conflict involving young men that can’t afford to get married and start a family without them.
Protecting the herd
Here in Western Equatoria State (WES) things are different. Agriculture is everything. People are proud that they grow their own food and one trip to the market in the state capital of Yambio proves that there’s more fresh produce here than anywhere in South Sudan. However, that’s not all that is grown here. Another industry, one of South Sudan’s only exports aside from oil still thrives, and it’s one of the very few left in the world – timber, and more specifically teak.
South Sudan is usually associated with war, poverty and often labeled the “world’s newest country”. However, when you come to the Yambio area of WES it’s impossible to miss this widespread industry. And teak is internationally regarded as one of the most sought after hard woods.
Teak - South Sudan's second largest export
A 2007 assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme found that “existing teak plantations alone could potentially generate up to USD 50 million annually in export revenue.”
Teak is not indigenous to Africa. Seedlings were planted during the colonial era across the continent from Benin and Nigeria to Tanzania and South Sudan. Forestry experts date the first plantation in South Sudan to 1919. Teak grows slowly and takes an average of 25 years before it begins to generate income. Most of the teak trees in WES are between 35 and 50 years old.
Teak has always played a part in South Sudan’s long history of conflict. The Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) used teak logging to finance its military activities against Khartoum. Furthermore, the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) allegedly logged South Sudanese teak trees to finance its operations against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which is still active in parts of Western Equatoria.
For more than 20 years The LRA, led by self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony, has terrorized civilians in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State as well as in Uganda, DR Congo and the Central African Republic.
In October 2011 US President Barack Obama sent 100 US Special Forces soldiers to Uganda to help track down the LRA and international fugitive Kony. They then deployed to Nzara, in WES (South Sudan) where Uganda's army has forward bases to engage the rebel group.
As we drove through Nzara, the presence of foreign troops was evident.
However, passing through a 50 kilometer teak plantation a different type of security emerged from the jungle.
Passing a teak plantation in Western Equatoria State
The “Arrow Boys” are a local militia on the hunt for LRA rebels, and whilst they may pale into insignificance when compared to Ugandan troops or U.S Special Forces, they are widely respected in these parts and fêted as local heroes. Arrow Boys are mainly from the Azande tribe, which is the dominant ethnic group in this area of South Sudan.
The Arrow Boys
Armed with old shotguns and using spent cartridges re-packed with gunpowder, rocks, metal, glass and anything else they can cram in, the Arrow Boys have been surprisingly effective in helping drive LRA rebels away from their villages, and north toward Western Bahr el Gazal State (WBG), which borders Western Equatoria. Last week the LRA attacked a village in Raja County, WBG. The latest published intelligence from satellite imagery suggests that the main core of the LRA and potentially leader Joseph Kony could be located in the border town of Kafia Kinji, WBG disputed by Sudan and South Sudan.
Improvised ammunition
The Arrow Boys that we spoke with were open about their pursuit of the LRA, and happy to show off their makeshift weapons to me and other Warrior Security staff.
Rob Mckee and Warrior Field Officer Iranya Gideon with the Arrow Boys
It is proof positive that security in this part of the world is paramount. Whether US Special Forces, Warrior Security, or Arrow Boy, we have all ended up here providing security of some sort.
On asking the Arrow Boys the origin of their guns they admitted they came in via the Central African Republic but are sold in Ezo, on the South Sudanese side of the border with CAR and DR Congo.
