Enabling young people to lead change and build peace

Abyei is the contested territory between Sudan and South Sudan. The Ngok (say Knock) Dinka live there; the Twic (say Twitch) live over the border in Twic County, South Sudan. They're both members of the larger Dinka community, having lived peacefully for centuries, occasionally interspersed with violence.  

Since 2022, there has been increasing conflict between the two groups: land disputes; reactions to wider political unrest in the region; pressures on land use exacerbated by unpredictable climate. 

The Concordis team in Abyei is tiny, but their impact is immense. Our approach has been to build trust with the young people of both groups; with those who chose to take up arms and those who don’t.  

The situation in the region is very volatile. These young people live in a place where weapons are easily available, there is a civil war over the border and refugees are flooding their land. The political situation in South Sudan is becoming increasingly inflammatory. Their world is rife with violence. But they want it to be different. 

Over the last year, through conversation, training and mediated dialogues, these young people have moved to a place where they want to see change. 

Their world is rife with violence, but they want it to be different.

Which is why, in April 2025, we were able to hold an unprecedented peace conference between armed and unarmed members of the two communities in Wao (say Wow!). One hundred young people attended. That number was amazing given the high tensions across the region.  

Armed youth leaders journeyed to Wao despite reports of attacks in their region, because “this is important”. If they had travelled by road, the Ngok youth would have had to pass through Twic County to get to Wau, meeting people who might have killed them on the way. So, they were flown in by helicopter by the UN peacekeeping force. 

The first thing that happened was the realisation that the mothers of the two leaders of the armed groups are sisters. They know each other and communicate. Other delegates also had cousins on the other side, and they addressed each other as 'cousin'.

This was the open door needed for trust and change: we are family, albeit a complicated one. 

It was acknowledged that trying to solve entrenched issues was beyond what they could achieve. When someone brought up the land issues, another person said "if you want to talk about land and borders, you are right, but this is the wrong forum. We are here to talk about cessation of hostilities, freedom of movement and misuse of social media". An agenda like that was achievable. 

It was a very friendly gathering, not heated. They even played football - in mixed teams but each team had a shirt: 'Twic' or 'Ngok'. They were wearing each other's community shirts. It also meant the local community where the conference was being hosted were able to watch and enjoy the football.  

The young women  really participated in the groups and discussions – which is rare. They want their own conference next. They want to reinstate the intermarriage ceremonies which have not happened for some time: a beautiful event, they said.  A beautiful opportunity to bring cohesion. 

This conference was also unprecedented because it ended with a signed peace agreement as they collectively decided to end hostilities. Everyone agreed to:

• Cease hostilities – between each other, but also a commitment to support each other against greater threats in the region. 

• Attempt to stop misinformation and hate speech – they identified social media sites that are aggravating the situation, and those who put out demoralising messages during the conference. They asked for help to reinstate two radio stations that had been trusted to put out accurate information. More than just address misinformation, they want to have positive communication between the two communities. 

• Support freedom of movement – of people and goods, so that there can be intercommunity trade which will build relationships and livelihoods.

Youth from both Twic and Ngok communities want to move freely in one another’s territories: and from the conference and the agreements, they feel safe enough to enact this.  They want to create a youth committee to monitor all these changes, and they want Concordis to be involved in its creation.  

It doesn’t end here. The young people want us to hold a women’s conference, one for the elders and another youth conference that includes Nuer young people from Unity State to the east. Their new youth committee will need funding, training and support.  

And concerted efforts are required to disperse the news of the conference to the wider community, particularly in rural areas, so the measures can be enacted and freedom of movement can safely begin. The young people are already doing that, and we will help. 

We need to support these activities so that the unprecedented steps to peace which were taken at this conference can become a living reality for the two communities.  

More to do.  

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