An Cosantóir

22 | South Sudan's Police by Comdt Fran O'Grady CMD Team member conducts a disposal task. A student practicing CMD drills in a local village. S outh Sudan's difficult road to nationhood saw it endure two rounds of civil war, spanning almost 40 years – the longest in African history. Independence on 9th July 2011 was met with an air of euphoria and high expectation but the new nation's divorce from Khartoum has undoubtedly been a painful process. Two years on from independence, despite massive financial support from the international community South Sudan remains one of the most impoverished and least developed countries in the world and the ongoing violence and instability is deeply rooted, with historical divisions and power struggles among political protagonists ever-present. Add to this a chilling set of development statistics. For example, the fact that over 50% of South Sudanese live below the poverty line; maternal mortality is the highest in the world; and life expectancy is only 42 years1, speaks volumes to the harsh living conditions faced by the population. This is a country suffering from trauma and one which has inherited vast tracks of land contaminated by mines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW). As the populace begins the leviathan task of nation building, the need to clear these hazardous areas has become a priority. In response to this need, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) conceived a development initiative to train selected members of South Sudan's police service with a view to establishing a national capacity in this field. This endeavour, the first of its kind in South Sudan, is supported by the Defence Forces in the form of a technical training team of four personnel who deployed in August 2013 as part of the United Nations Mission to South Sudan (UNMISS) and attached to UNMAS. Any meaningful assessment of the challenges facing capacity development initiatives in South Sudan must be undertaken in the context of the region's past. Many people, from the Nubians to the Ottoman Turks, have left their mark on this part of Africa, but perhaps one of the most divisive periods when it comes to stultifying the pace of development can be attributed to the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan at the end of the 19th Century. The colonial structure that followed, with all its trappings, created, amongst other things, a middle class in northern Sudan while southern Sudan was left virtually to its own devices. A wedge was further driven into this divide by the introduction of 'closed districts' policies aimed at administering the South as an entirely separate region. The concept was to intentionally develop the South at a slower pace by restricting trade, religion and education. Southern Sudan was thus isolated from the north and until Sudan's independence in 1956 it was planned that these southern lands would be assimilated into British East-Africa2. However, in the rush to extricate itself from the region, Britain did not decouple divergent entities and over half a century later South Sudan is still markedly less developed than its neighbours. For these reasons, the challenges facing capacity development in South Sudan are different from those faced elsewhere on the continent. The UN currently estimates some 73% of South Sudanese adults are illiterate3. In light of this fact alone, one might consider UNMAS's initiative to establish a national capacity in the technical- Member of DF Team observers student conduct firing drills. Mr Paul Evans, Second Secretary, EmAn Cosantóir Dec 2013/Jan 2014 www.dfmagazine.ie bassy of Ireland, Addis Ababa, views police CMD training in Rajaf. Irish Ambassador to South Sudan, Mr Aidan O'Hara presents Comdt Fran O'Grady with his UN medal

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