Biel Jock is a refugee who fled from Nyirol County to Ethiopia’s Pugnido refugee camp. The 27-year-old is caretaker to five nephews orphaned by illness and war.
Three of the boys lost their parents to disease before South Sudan’s civil war broke out last December. Two more saw their mother and father killed a few months ago as they fled to safety.
Biel’s wife Nyibol, 18, is five months pregnant. Her parents were killed while trying to flee to safety. Biel’s parents were also killed.
“My parents and my wife’s parents were fleeing together,” Biel recalls. “They were killed.”
Nyibol weeps at the memory. “We never thought the war which started in the capital among soldiers was going to target civilians on tribal lines,” she says.
After fleeing their homes, Biel and his family spent 16 days in the forest, eating wild fruits and drinking any water they could find, before crossing into Ethiopia almost empty-handed, eventually ending up at Matar way station.
From there, the refugees moved to Pugnido camp, where Biel is hoping to continue his education and pursue his dream of becoming a doctor.
“I want to go back to school,” he says. In South Sudan, he was a tenth grader at Aroboir School in Nyirol.
Biel says if he becomes a doctor he will not treat people from his tribe alone: “If I become a doctor, will I only treat sick people from my Nuer tribe?”
“Today I am a refugee, but I want to go to school with my nephews.”
This report is adapted from an article published by UNHCR, contributed by Sulaiman Momodu, a UNHCR spokesperson. Photos courtesy of UNHCR/Catianne Tijerina.
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