A
University of Northern Iowa student from West Des Moines is
scrambling to escape South Sudan on a United Nations flight this week
as a fight over oil supplies threatens to re-ignite a dormant civil
war.
Other
Iowans with relatives in the fledgling nation, formed last July, also
are worried about loved ones there as arch rival Sudan drops bombs
from warplanes and the African Union demands new talks.
George
Cole-Duvall, 19, hopes to head home either today or Saturday, said
his father, the Rev. Milton Cole of West Des Moines. “The anxiety
is very heightened,” Cole said.
Cole-Duvall,
a 2011 graduate of Valley High School, has been in South Sudan for
nearly a year, working on his political science studies through the
University of Northern Iowa.
Last
summer, he performed South Sudan’s new national anthem on his
trumpet in Freedom Square as the country was born after decades of
civil war. Now, after months of living in a mud hut with no
electricity, he’s trying to get out before full-scale war erupts.
As of early this week, George was safe and in a quiet area, Cole
said.
“He’s
in good spirits,” his father said. “He’s not ready to leave”
because the work has been enriching, he added. Cole-Duvall was
getting ready to leave and could not be reached for comment
The
Philadelphia-area native adopted by the West Des Moines family has
lived for nearly a year in Nzara with the Right Rev. Samuel Peni, a
family friend. Peni attended Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque
and now heads an Episcopal diocese in South Sudan.
Conditions
are primitive. An outdoor latrine features a hole in the ground.
Showers come from a water bucket. He cooks on an open fire.
As
part of his UNI work, Cole-Duvall has met with elected officials,
raised money for food, bicycles, scholarships and supplies, and
learned the local language.
He
isn’t the only Iowan following the situation.
Pastor
Simon Bilim Yiech of Sudanese Mission Lutheran Church in Des Moines
said he spoke to a relative in South Sudan via telephone on Wednesday
afternoon. All was well.
But
the citizens of South Sudan — including his mother, brother and
sister — fear they won’t be able to fight off the Sudanese
forces.
“One
of my cousins is in the front-line fighting,” said Yiech, a native
of the country. “He said, ‘We are looking at them, and they are
looking at us, but we are not fighting. But they are dropping the
bombs.’ ”
The
fighting is over South Sudan’s control of oil fields, and the money
that comes with them, Yiech said. He doesn’t expect the conflict to
let up soon.
“A
lot of villagers don’t have a gun,” said Yiech. “They are
afraid. They know that if north comes, they will do the same as in
’83,” when a second civil war erupted.
But
it appears unlikely the new nation will unravel even before it’s
first anniversary, Yiech said.
“The
government in the south has said, ‘No, we will not leave our
country, Yiech said. “But they wonder if they have the power to
fight the north. I have family there. I am worried.”
So
is Esther Mabior, 19, who is studying prelaw at Des Moines Area
Community College in Des Moines. She grew up in Ethiopia, but
considers South Sudan her homeland because her parents, now also
living in Des Moines, are from there. Mabior, a graduate of Lincoln
High School who has lived in Des Moines six years, still has aunts
and uncles living in South Sudan.
“I
was talking to my uncle,” Mabior said. “He said everything is
fine, but there is fear around the town. You never know what can
happen. They don’t have peace of mind is the problem now.”
In
Mabior’s view, the nations would stop fighting if Sudan’s leader,
President Omar al-Bashir, left office. al-Bashir has suggested he
doesn’t want to talk to South Sudan except with “guns and
bullets.”
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