United Nations reportedly Fomenting Violence Against Christians in South Sudan

By Walid Shoebat and Ben Barrack
**SHOEBAT EXCLUSIVE**

UNMISS stands for The United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan. The website claims “UNMISS is on the ground to consolidate peace and security and to help establish conditions for development”. Sources involved in South Sudan have told Shoebat.com that instead of facilitating peace, UNMISS is either fomenting or enabling civil war and insurrection in order to weaken that Christian nation for a takeover by Muslim Sudan to the north.

UN has become unwelcome presence in South Sudan.

UN has become unwelcome presence in South Sudan.

Consider a recent article that appeared in Foreign Policy magazine by Colum Lynch. While South Sudan’s government is essentially demonized for preventing UN vehicles from transporting aid, at least one incident recently may explain a growing mistrust of UNMISS by the South Sudanese government. When security officials stopped a UN vehicle, weapons and ammunition were found in crates that were labeled as containing food. In an attempt to explain, a UN official said that the crate was mislabeled and the entire incident was a “regrettable mistake”.

Aside from the government’s suspicions, thousands of protesters are crying out against UNMISS brutalities. This includes a huge contingent of the people in South Sudan who angrily demanded UNMISS close up shop and leave the country. According to the Sudan Tribune, South Sudan’s government, led by Salva Kiir, actually had to stop the protesters from forcibly doing it themselves.

There are several indications of smoke coming out of these UN camps that may point to the fire of domestic insurrection. The question is, why is UNMISS doing it and what’s the endgame?

What role does the UN play in South Sudan's fighting?

What role does the UN play in South Sudan’s fighting?

South Sudan is a Christian nation but also very tribal. The Dinka and Nuer tribes comprise more than 50% of the population, with the Dinkas holding the majority of that number. That is also Kiir’s tribe. There have been reports – as well as anecdotal evidence – that the Nuers have been recruiting young men and children from UNMISS camps to fight in a rebellion against the government.

A Newsweek article published in January focused on a 17 year-old Nuer boy named Marial Simon, whom they interviewed while Simon was living in a UNMISS camp after having been caught in the crossfire of a coup attempt led by Riek Machar on December 15th; Machar is the former Vice-President of South Sudan whom Kiir had fired months earlier. The article focused on the horrors Simon had experienced, to include the loss of his only living relative that night — his uncle.

In a previous Shoebat exclusive, it was explained how a group known as the Angels of East Africa (AEA), led by an American, Sam Childers (aka Machine Gun Preacher), rescued Simon from that camp after Childers read the Newsweek article. The story not told by Newsweek but relayed in a video by AEA, was that while in the UN camp, Simon was approached by rebels to fight for Machar’s forces against the government. Simon said he was told rebels were looking for soldiers between the ages of 14 and 30.

Riek Machar: His Rebels recruiting boy soldiers in UNMISS Camp.

Riek Machar: His Rebels recruiting boy soldiers in UNMISS Camp.

Officially, when it comes to relations between Muslim Sudan and Christian South Sudan is that Omar Al-Bashir, president of Sudan, has publicly stated that he backs Salva Kiir’s government against Machar’s rebels.

However, this doesn’t square with history or evidence. According to the Financial Times, al-Bashir backed Machar when the latter led a rebellion in the South during the 1990′s. According to al-Jazeera, Machar was a close aid to al-Bashir in those times.

In the weeks before being fired, Machar met with al-Bashir in Khartoum. Is history repeating itself?

Reik Machar (L) and Omar al-Bashir (R) meet in Khartoum, Sudan.

Reik Machar (L) and Omar al-Bashir (R) meet in Khartoum, Sudan.

Even the left-leaning New Yorker magazine concedes that al-Bashir’s Sudan has helped to “exploit divisions” in South Sudan but then points the finger at the fighting inside South Sudan, implying that al-Bashir has nothing to do with it.

In addition to the UN, the U.S. government is also involved. As Shoebat.com reported previously, there were several eyewitnesses who said they saw Machar enter the U.S. Embassy in Juba shortly after his failed coup attempt in December. The former aid to al-Bashir allegedly remained there for three days before entering an SUV that was part of a convoy of vehicles with dark-tinted windows.

The United Nations relationship with the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) could be helping to facilitate violence in South Sudan. Last year, Shoebat.com showed – via Arabic sources – how President Obama’s brother, Malik Obama, was involved with the OIC, demonstrating how cozy he is with terrorists. Malik also works for an arm of the al-Bashir’s Sudan, a State Department-designated State Sponsor of Terrorism. Malik met with the Secretary General of the OIC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at OIC’s headquarters in 2011.

2011: Malik Obama with the Secretary General of OIC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2011.

2011: Malik Obama with the Secretary General of OIC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2011.

The prominent Muslim website Meshkat explained a program to Islamize South Sudan was jump-started by founding the Islamic Conference in South Sudan, an organization affiliated with the OIC and founded by President Obama’s brother Malik Obama alongside the Muftis of Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and prominent figures from the Gulf countries.

This quite clearly suggests that the brother of the President of the United States is actively working to Islamize South Sudan on behalf of al-Bashir.

Muslim Sudan wants to take back Christian South Sudan which has the lion’s share of oil reserves. Al-Bashir’s Sudan has the pipeline to export it but has been accused by South Sudan of stealing and gouging. A little more than two years ago, Andrew Natsios wrote in Foreign Affairs that the South could pull back its oil shipments and negotiate a deal with Kenya to build a pipeline to the port of Mombasa, which would completely bypass al-Bashir. This would make Khartoum desperate.

Machar (L) and Kiir (R).

Machar (L) and Kiir (R).

Yet, the Financial Times argues that a logical explanation for al-Bashir’s stated support of the Kiir-led government to his south has to do with the former’s strong reliance on South Sudan’s oil reserves. Al-Bashir, a genocidal mass murderer who heads a country that is designated by the U.S. State Department as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, would much rather control South Sudan and its oil reserves than work with Kiir.

One must at least consider that latter premise if not accepting it outright. Whether intentional or not, if Machar is again an agent of al-Bashir, he was sent a very strong message a couple of years ago.

In 2012, the Obama administration was instrumental in helping the Kony 2012 video go viral. Joseph Kony, a warlord whose Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is known for tactics similar to those Machar’s rebels are accused of using inside the UNMISS camp, has been supported by al-Bashir for years. Yet, the Obama administration ignored this connection during the ‘Make Kony Famous’ campaign of the left-leaning group, Invisible Children.

If Machar is an agent of al-Bashir – as he was in the 1990’s – implicit in the lesson of Kony 2012 is that many forces can be brought to bear against such agents while letting al-Bashir off the hook. This message would not likely be lost on Machar.

The prevailing narrative coming out of the fighting in South Sudan has been that both the Dinkas and the Nuers have been committing atrocities. Evidence suggests, however, that UNMISS has been serving as a holding station for would-be rebel Nuer fighters at best, and a facilitator of insurrection at worst.

Malik Obama and Omar al-Bashir: at same 2010 Islamic Da'wa Organization Conference in Khartoum, Sudan.

Malik Obama and Omar al-Bashir: at same 2010 Islamic Da’wa Organization Conference in Khartoum, Sudan.

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