When a group of UN police officers in Bor realized that most of their female South Sudanese colleagues could not read, speak or write English and hence were relegated to making tea for their male coworkers, they decided to act.

“We have agreed together to hold anyone that will cause conflict between us accountable, like thieves of goats and cattle,” said Oburak Alex, the landlord of Bur who oversees all traditional rituals and land ownership disputes in the area.

Ambassadors, bons vivants, commanders, dignitaries and excellencies. They were all there, at UN House in Juba. Yet they had all left the parade ground when the celebration of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers began in spontaneous, playful earnest.