Martha, one of thousands of displaced living in Leer, a town in Unity State, says that soldiers in May killed her boy and abducted her daughter, who is still missing.
The killing took place while they were fleeing from Bentiu shortly after the government took the city in early May, according to an organization that documented the incident.
Martha, an older woman, was traveling by foot on the road to Guit with her 16-year old son and daughter when they were stopped at a roadblock manned by heavily armed soldiers supported by an armored personnel carrier.
The men took the boy “and slit his throat in front of her.”
A report on the incident adds that soldiers also took the woman’s daughter, whom she hasn’t seen since.
Martha is now living in the Leer market with three other women and 13 children, five of which are her grandchildren.
There is not enough food in Leer. According to Martha, she did not receive rations last time the World Food Programme distributed food here.
Some grain is available in the market, but it costs four to five times more than normal. It is brought from Mayom County by porters traveling on foot.
Women walk for five to seven days through the bush to reach Mayom County, 175 kilometers away, as the crow flies. They risk being abducted, raped or killed during the journey.
Elderly women have begun making the journey in lieu of younger ones, in the belief that these women are less likely to be attacked.
Leer town itself is now mostly calm, but it was attacked and pillaged by government forces in early February, one week after the 23 January ceasefire agreement. The government controlled the town until about mid-April, when rebels retook the city.
Many of the homes in the town were burnt and the hospital was ransacked. Schools, churches and market stalls are now occupied by displaced people seeking shelter.
Organizations and individuals with knowledge of human rights abuses are encouraged to share details with Radio Tamazuj at the address radiotamazuj [at] gmail.com.