The community of Munuki ranks among some most dangerous in Juba. It is in this community that members of the organized forces and law enforcement agents repeatedly cracked down on teenage bandits maneuvering in groups and terrorizing households as they search for money and precious electronic gadgets.

Year in, year out, these groups of people, known locally as “gangsters” or “niggas” have stirred mayhem in Munuki like in many residential areas within Juba; no one dare touch them because you risk discomfort at dawn. They also fight among themselves.

This year, Semira Semir, a student at the University of Juba pursuing Natural Resource in the Department of Geology and Mining, got her guts together to confront these freebooters, not to fight them but to engage them and map comprehensive solutions to their cause where possible.

Also clouded by fear of reprisal, the muggers told Semir not to identify them as “gangs” as the name places their image in disrepute. Instead, they preferred to be called “Shabab Juwa Hila”, which loosely translates to the “Youth in the Area”.

It was unclear why Semir channeled her priority to a group highly and rightly stigmatized by the community. Last week, the lady who projects herself as an agent of change spoke to The City Review.

CR: Why did you decide to work with the “gangs” in the community of Munuki?

Smeir: I decided to work with the gangs because they were the trouble causers in the community. They fight each other and that caused a lot of fear within the community.

So, what I actually wanted in my community was peace and the only way was to start with the Shabab Juwa Hila in the community. Mostly I wanted to unite these different gangs because they never meet and when they do, that means it’s a fight and it makes people in the community live with discomfort.

I also wanted the Shahbab Juwa Hila to have peace within themselves because they come from different groups and they fight each other and their fighting cause a lot of stress to their parents. So, all I want is peace in my community.

There are many productive things that these young men can do in the area rather than fighting each other.

How did you start the whole process and what was it like in the beginning?

The first time it was so difficult for me to do this work because I was young, but we first carried out a survey, we wanted to know what exactly made them to form these gang groups and what were their reasons for fighting each other.

So, we started with gathering them together, this was the most difficult part of it because these groups don’t meet each other, when we asked them to join us we didn’t reveal to each group that they were going to meet the other group but we told them that we had worship training and it is specially for youth.

Trust me, them meeting face to face was not easy because they looked at each other with very bad eyes.

 And we managed to get them together and, but that was not enough because we also had fear so the next step was to involve their parents because these are groups of people who only meet when there is a mission and the mission is to fight each other.

During the training we found out that some of the parents where so bitter with their children’s actions and some of them even gave up on their children. We also realized that they were making life difficult to their family members and some of the community members also said they were living in fear.

How was it like there first time meeting each other face to face?

First, me and my colleagues were scared of what would happen when these four groups meet each other although we didn’t tell them that they were going to meet other groups but the day reached and they were so surprised, the way they were looking at each other even made us worried but nothing [bad] happened.

Did they tell you what exactly makes them fight each other in their community?

Oh yes they did, they said that they don’t fight anybody it is only their enemies the other gang groups who move all the way from Gudele to Munuki to come and fight them and that they are “protecting their territories” from being encroached by the other gang groups who might come to attack them.

So, they end up fighting and the other reason for them fighting each other is that they don’t like it when any of the gang groups crosses to another area looking for their girls, that makes them very angry and it belittles them as men in that specific area that they live.

Am sure you have cooperated with them for some time. From your own observations, at what age range do you categorize the ‘Shabab Juwa Hila’?

They are from 20 years and below, in fact they are very young, cheerful children and energetic and they have hope because they even asked me to help them be active in the community, some want to join computer trainings, others are asking if I can put them in any training course; you know.

What was your response on the issue of them being called niggas or gangs?

We actually explained to them the reasons as to why they are being called names and we told them that it is because of the bad things that they do to each other and the people in the community and people will only stop calling them niggas if they stop the bad habits and they agree to change their behavior.

What other activities are you undertaking to promote peace in your community?

You know there are always this type of people in the community who like fighting and I am a very peaceful person, so I have solved very many people’s issues, mostly about fight in my community and even those people call me to solve their problems in case they fight with each other.

Besides, I am a peaceful person and I wish that our country could only get peace. And I also told the Shabab Juwa Hila that it is only through them uniting with each other that they can live peacefully and from October 2019 when we started our initiative up to now, Munuki area does not have gangs any more.

Are you going to continue with this programme to other communities that have gangs as well?

I would like this program to continue even in other areas as well not only in Munuki and as ‘Ana Taban’ we are four in a group, there is a group of Hai Amarat Juwa Hila, Nyakuron West Juwa Hila, Gudele Juwa Hila, and Munuki Juwa Hila and we will also reach Sirikat and even the whole Juba.

What is your last message to people out there?

In order for us to help our communities, and for us to stay in a peaceful community in South Sudan we need to unite and we should not disrespect these children because they are responsible children and I would like to tell parents not to give up on their children because all they need is advise and encouragement.