On 9 February 2026, leaders, women, youth, police officers and refugee-led organizations gathered in Ocea Zone, Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement, for a conversation that could no longer be postponed. Tensions among Nuer refugees had been rising… sometimes quietly, sometimes violently. What was needed was not another reaction to conflict, but a deeper examination of its roots.
The dialogue brought together 90 participants, the majority of them women. That in itself was telling. Women, often the first to feel the consequences of instability within households, came ready to speak frankly about what is happening to their families.
Two issues dominated the discussion: teenage pregnancy and football.
Participants explained that when a young girl becomes pregnant, the matter rarely remains private. Within the Nuer cultural context, where a girl child is closely tied to family dignity and bride wealth expectations, pregnancy outside formal arrangements can trigger confrontation between families. What begins as a personal matter quickly escalates into physical fights, destruction of property, and at times broader communal tension.
Alongside this, football, ordinarily a tool for unity and youth engagement, has increasingly become a fault line. Matches organized along clan lines have fueled rivalry rather than cohesion. “Football is good,” one youth leader acknowledged during the discussion, “but when we play by clan, it divides us.” In an environment already strained by trauma, limited opportunities, and economic hardship, small disputes on the field have spilled over into larger conflicts.
Yet beneath these immediate triggers lay deeper structural concerns.
Parents expressed growing anxiety about their children’s behaviour. Many youth are out of school. Some spend long hours away from home. Drug abuse, petty crime, and peer pressure were repeatedly mentioned. A teacher present at the dialogue highlighted a critical gap in sexual and reproductive health knowledge among adolescents. Many girls, she noted, lack basic understanding of menstruation and its link to pregnancy — a knowledge gap that has direct consequences for their futures and for community stability.
Food insecurity also surfaced as a significant stress factor. Several women pointed out that limited household resources force young people into vulnerable situations as they search for survival options. When livelihoods are weak, tensions rise.
Why did this dialogue matter?
Because it shifted the conversation from surface-level incidents to underlying causes. Rather than focusing solely on punishing wrongdoing, participants collectively acknowledged that sustainable peace requires addressing education, livelihoods, youth engagement, and mindset.
The outcomes were clear. There is urgent need for structured sexual and reproductive health training for both boys and girls. Football actors (players, coaches, referees) require peace-building and sportsmanship training to transform sport back into a unifying force. Youth need mindset and personal initiative development to redirect their energy toward constructive livelihoods. Parents, particularly women, require greater livelihood support to stabilise households and reduce economic stressors that feed conflict.
The dialogue concluded with a commitment to hold targeted follow-up engagements with youth and women groups to design practical guidelines for sports activities and community coexistence.