Foreign traders flee Unity State after recent bombardments

A civilian injured during the aerial bombardment of Bentiu (23.04.2012/Bonifacio Taban).On Tuesday more than 20 foreign traders left Bentiu, Unity State, seeking safety in South Sudan’s capital Juba. The move follows the intense fighting between the South’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in Heglig earlier this month.

The aerial bombardments of Bentiu and Rukonta on Monday, killing at least two and injuring six, according to state officials, was the tipping point, some do not want to go beyond.

Many foreign traders in Unity State are from South Sudan’s neighboring countries, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Kongo, selling imported food and cloth in Unity States’s nine counties.

Wazekwa Balopoi, a Congolese national, says he fears further bombardments by SAF. We are leaving this place”, speaking for 12 other Congolese nationals, as we are fearing the fighting”, Balopi says.

A group of people gathers around a detonated bomb in Bentiu (23.04.2012/Bonifacio Taban).He adds that Monday’s bombardment on Bentiu caused panic to a scale which makes many leave despite the loss of their businesses.

Others are more concerned about their business and therefore decide to stay. Peninah Akello from Kenya says she takes the risk and stays with the people of Unity State. One can decide to go or one can decide to stay.”

She however admits to be terrified, yet she says I have the feeling to stay behind” and she adds that the SPLA is working so hard” that ending further attacks by SAF is just a question of time”.

Clashes between Sudan and South Sudan, along the disputed border of the two neighbors, intensified earlier this month, Heglig and Unity State being two flash points.

Foreign traders fleeing Bentiu after aerial bombardments by SAF (24.04.2012/Bonifacio Taban).The SPLA captured the Heglig oilfield but later withdrew under the pressure of the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU).

Sudan and South Sudan are yet to resolve several contentious post-independent issues, a dispute over oil revenues, border demarcation and the repatriation of Southerners living in Sudan.

Tensions over these unsettled issues continue to escalate to what both neighbours now consider a state of war, resulting in loss of lives, displacement of civilians and the destruction of infrastructure.

A diplomatic offensive is ongoing, as the United States, China and Britain urge both sides to resume talks. The African Union (AU) even threatened that both parties will face a binding ruling, if they do not strike a peace deal within three month.