The Report 1 | Page 6

Combat and Cows

A story of how cows have influenced the life and death of thousands.

by Jonas Kulburg-Savercool

December 15th 2013, late at night shots were heard across the city of Juba; "BANG BANG BANG" the sounds of AK-47's echoed through the city of Juba. In the city barracks, a small portion of the president's armed guards were attempting to seize control of their base and overthrow the president, or so the government reported. This small elite portion of the military based in the heart of South Sudan's emphasizes how the conflict there is growing.

This small skirmish was later called a coup by president Salva Kiir, he later blamed his political opponent Riek Machar for orchestrating it. This led to a heated controversy with Machar accusing Salva of acting on only his own tribe’s interest in the government. Since the attempted coup, over one thousand South

The Dinka and the Nuer are not the only tribe in South Sudan but are the two largest. These two tribes have been fighting over resources such as land and cattle for century's. A example of these confrontations is cattle raids. Cattle running is a long running tradition that was originally fought with spears but now in a country that just got out of a civil war automatic weapons are not hard to come by and are much more deadly. The reason there is so much competition is because both tribes rely on the basic source of food, cattle.

The Dinka tribe accounts for 35%(3) of South Sudan's population; making it the majority. Through the different clans there are many different religions including Islam, Christianity, and their own tribal god. The majority of Dinkas are now Christian after European and

Sudanese have been killed and it has spread fear of a second civil war.

Kiir belongs to the Dinka ethnic group and Machar is in the Nuer tribe, the long time enemies and rivals of the Dinka. Because South Sudan is the newest newest country in the world, both tribes are attempting to gain political power to avoid violence but this strategy is failing. As in many newly elected governments, a certain amount of the population claimed the election was rigged and that Kiir did not win by a vote, this side was for the majority taken by the Nuer and was made worse when Kiir fired his whole cabinet, composed of some very well known Nuer leaders(1). In essence, the conflict has begun to turn into an ethnic war over who can gain power in the government and give their tribe the most resources.

6 The Report March 2014