Wau (South Sudan)

Coordinates: 7 ° 42 '  N , 27 ° 59'  E

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South Sudan

Wau ( Arabic واو Wāw ; Alternative spelling Wow ) is the capital of the southern Sudanese state of Wau (until 2015 of the state of Western Bahr el Ghazal ). The city became famous during the South Sudanese Civil War for the nearby refugee camps and was the site of fierce fighting. The second largest city in South Sudan is around 500 kilometers as the crow flies northwest of the state capital Juba and 1000 kilometers southwest of Khartoum on the Jur River .

history

In the 19th century Wau was a militarily guarded camp ( Zariba ) of Muslim slave traders, the so-called " Djellaba " because of their Arab clothing . As middlemen , they brought slaves from black African peoples like the Fertit , who were robbed from their ancestral Dar Fertit area west of Wau and south of Darfur from the 1860s to the 20th century , to their clients in the north in Kordofan and Darfur. The climax of the slave hunts was the time of the Turkish-Egyptian rule 1821–1881 and the subsequent Mahdi Empire until 1898. Wau had become an island of Muslims and Arabs , also through originally nomadic Fulani and individual immigrants from Egypt. The non-Muslim population consisted mainly of Dinka , next to Fertit and Luo .

The French's colonial plans for conquest envisaged the creation of a French sphere of influence from the west across the African Sudan region . In Wau they founded Fort Dessaix and advanced as far as the White Nile, where they met the English in Faschoda (renamed Kodok in 1904) in 1898 . The Faschoda crisis was peacefully settled between the two colonial powers, the French also withdrew from Wau, and the place was part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan until 1956 .

In 1898 the first missionaries, Catholic Verona Fathers from Italy, came to the Bahr al-Ghazal region , and in 1905 they founded a station in Wau. The missionaries were supposed to build a bulwark against the spread of Islam and were supported by the British administration. In 1913 Wau became a bishopric. The influx of Arab peoples was temporarily banned by the British, who were striving for independent development in the south of the country. After Sudan's independence in 1957, all mission schools in South Sudan were nationalized, and in 1964 the missionaries were expelled. They could not return until the 1970s after the Addis Ababa Agreement .

Civil war

Hut settlement a few kilometers north of Wau

During the second civil war, which broke out in 1983, Wau and the northern Aweil garrison towns remained in the hands of the government of Khartoum. Refugees who wanted to get out of combat zones to safety gathered in camps on the outskirts. The fighting over Wau started in January 1998. According to UN estimates, 65 percent of the population had fled in February, the Dinka fled east to the SPLA area , other peoples across the border to the south. A faction under Kerubino Kwanyin Bol, split off from the SPLA at the time and with an area of ​​influence north of Wau, is held responsible for particularly severe destruction in the city and the surrounding area. Between May and August 1998, many Dinka returned exhausted to Wau, where they were supposed to be supplied with daily food flights from the air. For several months, however, this was hardly possible because of the fighting. The 1998 famine supply flights were a continuation of Operation Lifeline Sudan , which started in March 1989.

Independently of temporary refugee camps, the government in Khartoum pursued the creation of "peace villages" in the outskirts of the cities it controlled, such as Wau and in the Nuba Mountains , in order to permanently resettle refugees and to introduce new forms of agriculture. However, these were part of the military strategy. Development organizations that supported these settlements thus effectively participated on the part of the government in prolonging the conflict. The follow-up  mission to the United Nations Mission in Sudan , the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) announced in a report on the current situation in Wau on April 10, 2017 that it had been informed that during fighting on Sunday, in the southern part of the city, soldiers of the SPLA had been killed. During patrols carried out by UNMISS units, the bodies of 16 civilians were found in a hospital on Monday. At least 10 other people were injured.

population

Cattle market on the outskirts

Population development:

year	Residents
1973 (census)	52,752
1983 (census)	58.008
1993 (estimate)	84,000
2007 (calculation)	136.179

The table does not include the strong population fluctuations caused by the civil war and famine. Including the surrounding area, a population of 220,000 (2007) is assumed and a strong increase is expected for the next few years. The population is made up of cattle-raising and arable Dinka, a small part of which are Christianized. Several ethnic groups are grouped together under the name Fertit, they practice agriculture and are partly Christians or Muslims. In addition there is the high proportion of Arabized ethnic groups from the north.

Location and traffic

Wau is 433 meters high on the west bank of the Jur, the main southern source of the Bahr al-Ghazal , which flows into the White Nile. The climate in the humid savannah with a dry season from November to April and heavy rainfall in the summer months ensures good growing conditions. The basic food is sorghum , cassava , lentils and corn are also grown around Wau for self-sufficiency and sesame and peanuts for sale. Wau lies in a wide belt of light acacia forest, whose newly felled trees are used to build houses.

Several city districts are laid out in a rectangular street plan, the settlement has developed largely unregulated. The expansion of the city is limited to the east by the river and to the north by the airport. Traditional residential buildings of the Dinka are round or square mud houses with conical roofs and grass cover, erected at a certain distance, most solid buildings have brick walls with flat, inclined corrugated iron monopitch roofs.

The infrastructure is underdeveloped. Where available, electricity is available locally and by the hour from diesel generators. Outside the military, only development aid organizations and the Catholic Church own transport vehicles. The main means of transport for the population are bicycles.

The only bridge over the Jur is located in Wau. It is a two-lane concrete bridge from which the earth road leads via Rumbek to Juba. The road to the north is hardly passable continuously, a connection to Raja , 300 kilometers to the west, is even more difficult due to the lack of bridges. During the rainy months, Wau cannot be reached by land. Instead, the Jur, which can only be navigated by small boats in the rainy season, is dried up except for a few remains of the lake during the dry season. In 2007 the residential areas near the river had to be evacuated due to flooding.

After the end of the civil war, demining organizations began clearing mines and duds from the streets around the city . In doing so, they first created an 8 to 25 meter wide corridor with clearing vehicles. The section of road east of the bridge to the next town of Tonj was demined by February 2007.

The Babanusa – Wau railway was completed in 1962. After destruction during the civil war, the route was rebuilt with UN assistance. In March 2010, the entire route was open to traffic again. The first freight train to arrive in Wau was received by the Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir and the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit .

Air traffic remains the fastest and most reliable connection. The fortified runway of the airport ( 7 ° 43 '27 "  N , 27 ° 58' 50"  O , ICAO : HSWW, IATA airport code : WUU) 2330 meters long. Wau is served from Khartoum and Juba. The UN missions UNMISS and UNISFA use the airport for regular flights from Juba and Entebbe as well as connections to smaller places such as B. Aweil , Gokmachar and Abyei .

Climate table

Woof
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     0   36 18th     4th   37 20th     20th   38 22nd     69   37 24     132   35 23     170   33 22nd     199   31 21st     234   31 21st     179   32 21st     130   34 21st     8th   36 20th     0   36 18th Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: wetterkontor.de

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Wau Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 36.1 37.1 38.0 37.2 34.9 32.6 31.0 30.8 32.2 33.9 35.5 35.7 O 34.6 Min. Temperature (° C) 17.9 19.5 22.1 23.5 23.0 22.0 21.3 21.2 21.2 21.2 19.7 18.3 O 20.9 Precipitation ( mm ) 0 4th 20th 69 132 170 199 234 179 130 8th 0 Σ 1,145 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 9.6 9.1 8.3 7.3 8.2 7.1 5.6 6.3 6.8 7.1 9.0 9.6 O 7.8 Rainy days ( d ) 0 0 3 6th 11 12 14th 16 14th 11 2 0 Σ 89 Humidity ( % ) 35 29 36 45 64 73 78 80 76 71 55 46 O 57.5 Source: wetterkontor.de

sons and daughters of the town

• Luol Deng (* 1985), South Sudanese-British basketball player
• Thon Maker (* 1997), South Sudanese-Australian basketball player
• Alek Wek (* 1977), Sudanese photo model

Personalities associated with the city

• Hermann Steudner (1832–1863), German botanist and Africa explorer, died on April 10, 1863 in Wau.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Consequences of the Failed Attempt to Take Wau. Human Rights Watch 1998 (Displacement through war and return to Wau due to famine 1998)
2. ↑ James C. McKinley: Fueled by Drought and War, Starvation Returns to Sudan. The New York Times, July 24, 1998 (Wau area fighting and relief supplies, 1998)
3. ↑ David Keene: Making Famine in Sudan. ( Memento of October 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Emergency Nutrition Network, Field Exchange, February 1999, pp. 6f
4. ↑ Mark Bradbury, John Ryle, et al. a .: Local Peace Process in Sudan. A baseline study. Rift Valley Institute 2006, p. 29
5. ^ Note to Correspondents on the situation in Wau. LandesPressePortal, April 11, 2017, accessed on April 11, 2017 . 
6. ^ South Sudan: Civilians killed in Wau fighting. In: Aljazeera. April 11, 2017, accessed April 11, 2017 . 
7. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives:
8. ^ Report on Inter-Agency Assessment Mission To GoS Towns in Southern Sudan. United Nations Joint Logistics Center, August 30, 2004 ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Infrastructure of the cities of Juba, Malakal and Wau. Road conditions p. 25, photo of the train station p. 26  
9. ^ Monthly Activity Report. UNMAO / UNMAS ( Memento of December 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Lists currently demined areas in the monthly report for February 2007
10. ↑ Sudan. Terror train turns the corner. World News, March 22, 2010

Web links

• South Sudan: Strategic Participatory Town Planning. Ministry of Land, Housing and Public Utilities. Government of Southern Sudan detailed and general maps of the city