Survivors of the violence in the town of Bor and outlying villages in Jonglei State have crossed in the tens of thousands across the Nile River into Lakes State since mid December.
These accounts from Jonglei, alongside testimony collected elsewhere, suggest that many of the elderly, sick, weak and pregnant were unable to cross to safety with the rest of the civilian population.
The United Nations estimates that approximately 85,000 people are now sheltering in eastern Lakes State after fleeing violence in neighboring Jonglei. Aid efforts to help the displaced were disrupted by fighting in Awerial County itself last week, but since have been scaled back up.
Few stories of the survivors have yet been told. The accounts that follow are translated from Dinka.
Ngor Deng, 2014/01/12
My name is Ngor Deng; I come from Bor, Twic. In Bor a big enemy has shot all homes and nobody is present at home, it took all the properties and burnt the houses. The Nuer have captured all the land and are attacking people along the shore, this is what has happened in Bor.
I’m now in Minkaman and we are spread over the bush. The situation we have come to in Minkaman is very bad, we are suffering, children are sick and there is no life with us and I do not know the life of those who are left behind in the bush, we do not have mosquito nets, things to cover with and no food.
Makuei Ajak, 2014/01/12
My name is Makuei Ajak. The Nuer came to our home, killed people and burnt homes. There is nothing that they did not do, they killed people and displaced us to Guol Yaar (in Awerial County).
We are here in Guol Yaar under the government and the UN but they have not prepared themselves to keep us until we return to our home. We lack houses, we sleep in cold weather under the trees. If the government is able let it provide us with tents to live in.
Angeth Ayuen, 2014/01/12
My name is Angeth Ayuen. I’m from Jonglei. We were displaced by the Nuer from Bor and came here to Aliab land. We first walked in the bush and then came across the Nile.
We came to Aliab land and the people of Aliab help us to live. As we stay here we know that we stay at God’s mercy. It is God to prepare so that we stay in Aliab without fear. What could be done to solve this conflict? We leave it to God.
Rebecca Nyanthuc, 2014/01/12
My name is Rebecca Nyanthuc. We came here because of the violence. Riek Machar says he needs the chair but how can he want that chair when he has killed weak people?
Like those old women who were praying in the church in Leudiat, he slaughtered them all including old blind women. He is killing civilians and not the army, and yet he says he needs the chair. Is he really a man of the people?
I have four weeks here in Guol Yaar and I did not find any UN. We have been registered and told that (food) distribution will be done according to payams and someone who has relative writes their relatives and if you don’t you will not get some.
Achok, 2014/01/12
My name is Achok. I came from Mading Bor. It is destruction, Nuer has destroyed it – that is why we have come to Awerial where we have never been to before, and which we have found when we are old.
We do not know whether we shall stay here to live or to die. Our elders who were left behind when they did not have something to transport them to come here have died. Now we do not know the beginning from the end of the earth.
We came recently. We have not been given food. We carried no food with us. Was it not our soul we ran to save so that we live as we are doing now?
Photo: Refugees in Minkamen, Lakes State, January 2014 (Radio Tamazuj)