Wildlife makes dramatic return to Sudan

Lone elephant elders were first spotted exploring their old territories, and, Akwoch noted, “When they see the region is at peace and that no one shoots them, they bring back their whole family.”

The north-south war, which is separate from the bloodshed in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, ended with a peace agreement which gave southerners a role in a national unity government, created an autonomous southern government and promised a 2011 referendum on the South’s independence.

However, southerners accuse Khartoum of violating the peace deal and — in a dramatic step — the former rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement quit the government last month to demand the pact’s fulfillment.

Pagan Amum, the SPLM’s secretary general, said the south is tired of fighting and will work to avert a new clash. “We want this land to re-flourish, and people to be able to enjoy it at last,” he said.

Southern officials are hoping for tourism to help fund their cash-strapped state. The autonomous government plans to open a safari lodge at Nimule next year and hopes to draw 1,000 tourists in the first year.

Authorities then plan to reopen a dozen national parks or game reserves throughout south Sudan, a vast, subtropical region nearly the size of France whose human population of 8 million is vastly outnumbered by wild animals.

Not all animals were killed or chased out by the war. Large herds took refuge from the battles and from poachers in an impenetrable zone of swamps in south Sudan’s heartland known as the Sudd.

Col. Paul Adot, Nimule’s chief warden, vows to protect the elephant herds from poachers in the 400 square-mile park. The 190 wardens — many of them former SPLM soldiers — share 20 automatic rifles, one jeep and two motorcycles.

Adot is staunchly Christian and complains about decades of efforts by Khartoum to impose Arab and Islamic ways on the south. He said he was an SPLM officer and his father was tortured to death in the war.

Wildlife, he said, has been his passion since childhood, listening to village elders tell stories of the animals.

“There was the elephant, the hare, and nasty mister hyena,” he chuckled. “We have always lived side by side with the animals.”

Overlooking Nimule Park’s vast savannah, he pointed toward the bend in the river where the elephants grazed. “We want to make sure they stay,” he said.

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