Testimonies - IDPs emergency response in Upper Nile and Jonglei State

My name is Rebecah. I am 54 years old. I worked for many years in Lankien as a traditional birth attendant (TBA). I helped many women give birth safely. When modern medicine became more available, I started working together with the hospital. Even after helping women deliver at home, I always advised them to go to the health facility, including the MSF hospital in Lankien, so they could be checked.

After the conflict started in Jonglei, especially in Lankien, I lost everything. People began to flee, but I refused to leave at first. I am old, and I have been sick for the past five years. My life has not been easy. I was a regular patient at the MSF hospital in Lankien, and I depended on that care.

When the hospital was destroyed, and I saw many houses being burned, including the market that was bombed, I lost hope. I said to myself, "If I die, let me die in my own home." I did not want to move anymore.

The town became empty. Everyone left. My family, my children, and my grandchildren refused to leave me behind. When I saw that staying would put their lives in danger, I agreed to leave with them.

We came here to Yakuach. We have built a small shelter to have some shade, but the rest of my family sleeps outside. We have no mosquito nets, no beds, no blankets, and nothing to cover ourselves at night.

When MSF opened the clinic here, I went there and received some medicine. But I cannot take medicine because I have nothing to eat. When I take medicine on an empty stomach, I vomit. Now my biggest worry is not the medicine, it is food and clean drinking water.

I worry about my whole family. We have nothing here. Food is the most important thing we need now.

Since we were displaced, I stopped working as a traditional birth attendant. Here I am only a visitor. We lost our home, we lost our things, and we lost everything. We have nothing left to be proud of, or to call myself a traditional birth attendant.

My name is Moses. I am 77 years old. I have seen many wars in my life, but this kind of displacement has never happened before. I have never seen a time when civilians’ homes are burned to ashes like this.

I remember the time when we were fighting for this country, what is now called South Sudan. When our liberators were fighting the Arabs, it never happened that our homes were burned like this. That war was between the governments. Civilians were not the target. Our markets were not destroyed. People could still live their lives. Even when we were displaced, we would return and find our homes the same way we left them. This time is different.

I was living in Yuai when government forces entered the town. I was forced to leave, and I lost my property. I ran to Waat, thinking I would be safe there, but the same thing happened again. I had to flee

from Waat to Lankien, my ancestral land. I thought I would stay there, but again I was forced to run. I carried nothing with me, only my walking stick. This is the worst situation I have ever seen in my life.

Lankien is finished. There is nothing left to take us back there. The elderly, the women, the children, no one is spared. I have never seen anything like this before. Hunger is killing us, and at the same time bullets are killing us. Right now, in the Greater Lou-Nuer area, there is not even one house left standing.

We arrived in Chuil very tired, both in the body and in the mind. We are sleeping under the trees. I have nothing to eat. These sacks I am using, I borrowed them from businessmen near the river. When night comes, I spread them on the ground and sleep on them.

We fled because we wanted to live. Going back to Lankien is not possible. I am old and tired. I cannot walk that long distance again. They forced us to leave our homes, and it feels like they want us dead.

What we need now is food, mosquito nets, and blankets to cover ourselves during these cold nights. I hope the organizations will do something to reduce this suffering. Right now, we depend on humanitarian organizations. Today we have that MSF clinic over there, maybe tomorrow we will have food, shelter, and clean drinking water.

But the truth is, whether we survive or whether we die, only God knows.

We left Lankien last week, after everything was destroyed. The fighting became too much. This is not the first time I have been displaced. I ran before, in 2013, and again in 2016. But this time was harder for me, because I have this small boy. He is my son, six years old. I had to carry him most of the way.

We left as a big group, many people together, but I could not move fast. The child was tired, and I had to put him on my back. Because of that I remained behind, and I got separated from the others.

On the road we were attacked by the armed men from Greater Pibor. They took cattle, they killed some men, and they abducted children. When the shooting started, I carried my son on my shoulder and ran into the bush. From that moment I did not see the rest of the people again. Until now I don’t know where they are. I don’t know if they are alive or dead. Only God knows.

My body is still in pain from the journey. I was carrying the boy on my back, and in my hand, I had a five-litre jerrycan with water. We followed the river, just moving, not knowing where we were going. We only wanted to reach a place where we could be safe.

On the way, my child became very weak. We had no food. Sometimes he fainted. I thought he would die on the road before we arrive.

I arrived here this morning. I came straight to the clinic. I was lucky to find it open. I don’t have a place to sleep. I don’t even think about food now. I only want my child to stay alive.

Many people left Lankien after the first airstrike, but we stayed behind. When the government forces came closer, we became afraid. They were violent, and the town was no longer safe. In the last days before we left, we saw houses burning. The borehole was destroyed. The hospital was destroyed. The market was looted. The water point was destroyed.

There was nothing left in Lankien. No water, no hospital, no safety. We stopped sleeping in the house. At night we stayed in the bush, because we were afraid the next house to burn would be ours.

That is why I left, carrying my son, without knowing where we would go, and not knowing if we would survive.

Everyone fled. Those who remained behind are the disabled, the elderly who cannot walk, and the visually impaired. They might die there, and that is my biggest fear. But we have already started to accept this reality. This situation is about life and death, and right now death is chasing us in every direction.

We left our homes in Lankien running from bullets and airstrikes. While we were moving through the bush, armed men attacked people. Some were killed, and children were abducted. In the group I was traveling with, some girls were taken into the bush. I cannot say what was done to them. I only thank God that they came back alive.

During the journey we suffered a lot. We had no food, no medicine. Bees stung us in the bush, mosquitoes were everywhere, and the cold nights were very hard to endure. Many things happened in a very short time. There are no words to explain what we feel now. You may not fully understand what we went through, but if you look into my eyes, and into the eyes of the people here, you may begin to understand the pain we carry. This suffering was brought on us by our own government.

At some point we survived by boiling leaves from the trees and eating them. We had nothing else.

When we arrived here, the host community received us. They welcomed us because they also know displacement. Many of them came from Ulang. They went through the same suffering, and that is why we are now together here.

Now the needs are bigger than hospital care and medicine. We need food, we need water, we need shelter. Without these things, surviving here will not be possible.