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Humanitarian Aid Development Aid

Liberation and care for slaves from South Sudan

During the Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005), countless people in the south (now South Sudan) were killed by Islamist militias or taken north into slavery. Although the raids have stopped since, many South Sudanese are still held in slavery and subjected to the cruel arbitrariness of their owners. Others were already born into slavery. CSI has freed over 100,000 slaves so far. Your donation will support: • further freeing people from slavery • assistance in the self-sufficiency of liberated South Sudanese through a start-up package and a goat • medical care for victims • assistance programs for the local population Thank you very much!

we started on 2022-10-27
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According to the head of the project, freeing one slave costs about 60 USD - i.e. about 1,500 CZK.

Every year, CSI frees 1,500 people from slavery in Sudan and helps them start a new life in South Sudan. CSI Project Manager Franco Majok travels regularly to South Sudan to oversee five liberation events a year. He answered a few questions on his way to Europe.

Approximately how many South Sudanese slaves are still in Sudan?

We don't know how many slaves there are still in Sudan. But we know that there are still slaves in Sudan. Most of the slaves in Sudan live in cattle camps in remote areas, tending cattle to Arab masters. They are on the move and out of town, making them hard to track and count. Arabs who search for slaves confirm this. Freed slaves also tell us at every liberation event that there are still many people in slavery. In the next four to five years, we should get a clearer idea of ​​their numbers.

Can you briefly describe the process of freeing slaves?

CSI frees slaves in Sudan through Arabs who seek them out. They move between villages and cattle camps, collecting ransomed slaves. A common way is to exchange a slave for a vaccine for an Arab master's cattle. The freedom of one slave costs $60. Other times, slaves hear of Arab traders moving around and run away with them. Arab traders then protect them and take them to their camps, where they feed and clothe them. Then they walk with them to South Sudan. The journey is not without risk, but all the slaves want to return to South Sudan to their families.

Isn't CSI supporting the slave trade by buying slaves? CSI has been freeing slaves in Sudan since 1995. Do you know of any freed South Sudanese being re-enslaved?

No, we do not support the slave trade by freeing slaves. CSI even helped stop the abduction of South Sudanese into slavery. Thanks to the work of CSI, the world learned that there are slavers and slaves in Sudan. She helped bring peace to Sudan and South Sudan to gain independence.

Is it true that since the 2005 peace agreement between North and South Sudan, the enslavement of South Sudanese and their being dragged to the North has ended?

Yes, that's right, there has been no enslavement in South Sudan since 2005. The slaves that CSI is freeing today are those who were kidnapped before 2005, that is, before the conclusion of the peace agreement, or those who were already born into slavery.

Is the goal of CSI to free all the slaves in Sudan and return them to South Sudan?


Yes, that's right - CSI won't stop until all the slaves return free to South Sudan.

REAL PEOPLE STORIES

Until the age of nine, Aluet lived a happy childhood with her parents and siblings in what is now South Sudan. Her parents were farmers and fishermen.

But one day in the year 2000, Alueta's life suddenly changed. The village was attacked by jihadists from the north on behalf of the Sudanese government. "My mother hastily took me on her back and tried to run away. But the Arabs caught us and captured us along with other people from the village,” he says.

A real nightmare

During the long march to the north, the girl witnessed terrible things. Her older brother was shot by the kidnappers when he tried to resist them. "Also, I heard the screams of many raped women and girls at night, including my mother." It was also difficult for Aluet that she was given almost nothing to eat during the several-day march.

When they reached their destination, Aluet and her mother became slaves to the Sudanese Hamadan Musa. Since then, her mother had to take care of Hamadan's old mother, cleaning the house and doing laundry. She was also in charge of food and had to grind sorghum herself. “My mother worked many hours a day. Sometimes she also gathered wild herbs when we had nothing to eat.'

They had a terrible time in Musa's slavery, sleeping on the hard floor. When the exhausted mother expressed her tiredness, Musa scolded and beat her. Aluet was no better off as she too was often shouted at and beaten.

Distribution

When Aluet grew up, she underwent genital mutilation and was forced to convert to Islam. One day Hamad's son took me to another village where I had to live with him. Since then, I have never seen my mother again," complains Aluet, who gave birth twice at that time.

In July 2021, Alueta's life took an unexpected turn. While shopping at a local market, she was approached by an Arab liberator working for CSI. He took the young woman to his camp where there were other freed slaves from her homeland. When Aluet talks about her return to South Sudan, her eyes light up with joy: “The liberator treated us very well on the way back. He gave us dried fish, oil and sorghum and gave us new clothes.'

Now in her 30s, the woman is happy to be back in South Sudan and living a new life in freedom.



Aluel Wal Anei, now 25, was born in a camp for displaced people in the Sudanese town of Adila. Her parents were driven out of what was then southern Sudan and found refuge in a refugee camp in Adila. The mother helped in the households of Sudanese families and the father worked on the nearby farms.

Kidnapping

Aluel was still young when Muslim slavers entered the camp one day. Many children were forcibly taken from their parents. Aluel was also a victim of kidnapping. “I was taken away in front of my mother by a man named Muhammad Ali. He told me that I would work at his home. Being taken away from my family as a young child was so horrible. All I could do was cry. But no one could help me!” recalls Aluel. "It was enough for the armed Muhammad to fire one shot during the kidnapping to signal that he would kill anyone who tried to free me."

Scorned and abused

In Muhammad's extended family of three wives and 12 children, Aluel had to clean the house, wash dishes and carry water. She worked several hours a day and had to endure the position of a despised slave - a "dirty black woman".

"Compared to the Sudanese, I'm very black," she says.

The young woman was also physically abused – she had to undergo painful genital mutilation. Muhammad's sons raped her. "They could do whatever they wanted with me," says Aluel, who cried many nights. "That's when I asked God to help me."

God heard her prayers and help came from an unexpected source: one of Muhammad's wives told her that there was a Sudanese merchant in the area who would take her to her native South Sudan. At night, when everyone was asleep, she helped her escape. "At first I hesitated, but she encouraged me to run," Aluel recalls of the turning point in his life. On January 23, 2022, she took the opportunity to flee to the Liberator. He took her to the camp with the other freed slaves. The next day they all set off and after a few days they arrived safely in the South Sudanese state of North Bahr-el-Ghazal, where they were welcomed by CSI.

 "We will free all the slaves in the Sudan"

Slave liberator Hassan (name changed) is from the Darfur region of Western Sudan. A slave trader and finder, he is a member of the Committee of Liberators. It was founded in the middle of the civil war in the 1990s by Arab tribal elders from Meiram (Sudan) and a group of Dinka chiefs from Warawar (today's South Sudan). "The aim of the committee is to free all slaves from captivity in Sudan," says Hassan.

In the Sudan region where many slaves still live, according to Hassan, there are farms with up to 10,000 cattle. Farming families have too few workers for these huge farms. That's why they like to exploit cheap labor from the south, who often work only for board and lodging.

The Sudanese government is giving landowners a free hand. There are no police officers to supervise the situation on these cattle farms. The space for discriminatory treatment of Sudanese workers and South Sudanese slaves is open. “If a local laborer is not paid, the slave owner knows that his relatives will stand up for him. He can use South Sudanese with impunity - no one will stand up for them," Hassan points out.

“Most slavers are not devout Muslims. They pray - they do, but the content of the Koran is largely unknown to them and they have never heard of human rights," concludes Hassan.

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