Waterlilies Sustain South Sudanese Fleeing Civil War Horrors

By Ilya Gridneff, Bloomberg news

22 September 2014

Mary Jorjor is no longer a mother. All seven of her children died in fighting that has consumed South Sudan since December and turned independence for the world’s newest nation into a nightmare.

Her three daughters were killed during the explosion of violence in the capital, Juba, while her sons died after they joined rebel forces, Jorjor, 46, said as she waited at a United Nations-funded food distribution center in the village of Jeich in the eastern province of Jonglei. Her family is Nuer, the ethnic group that generally supports insurgents fighting the army and pro-government Dinka people.

“I have to look after my daughter’s girl because she is dead,” Jorjor said through an interpreter, cradling her two-year-old granddaughter Nyajimi. “Many older women are looking after babies because their daughters are dead. We don’t have breast milk for the children.”

Three years after winning independence from Sudan, following almost five decades of civil war, oil-producing South Sudan is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN. A power struggle between President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and his former vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer, sparked a civil war that’s killed thousands and forced at least 1.8 million people to flee their homes.

Jorjor lost her left eye when she was fleeing fighting to a UN camp in Bor, the capital of Jonglei. “Something hit it,” she said. “I was running because I thought Dinka were going to kill me.”

Breaking Cease-Fires

Both sides have recruited child soldiers to fight, New York-based Human Rights Watch said last month.

The warring parties have repeatedly broken a cease-fire they signed in January in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and a follow-up agreement last month. The two sides resumed discussions today in the town of Bahir Dar, focusing on regional proposals for a transitional government and overhaul of the state, the head of the rebel delegation, Taban Deng Gai, said by phone.

In July, the Pretoria, South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies estimated the negotiations had cost $17 million. Countries including the U.S., the U.K. and Norway are funding the negotiations.

Back in South Sudan, almost four million people, about a third of the population, are severely hungry, according to the UN, and thousands must trek for miles from their homes to feeding centers set up by aid agencies.

‘Man-Made Disaster’

“This is not a natural disaster this is a man-made disaster,” Jean-Louis de Brouwer, director of operations, humanitarian aid and civil protection at the European Commission, told reporters in Juba on Sept. 16. “Thanks mostly to the efforts of donors, famine has been prevented, temporarily, but the situation remains dire.”

The past five months of heavy rains have left Jeich covered in a blanket of mud, swollen with 15,000 mostly displaced ethnic Nuers fleeing the fighting and seeking protection behind rebel lines.

In searing heat and a cacophony of noise, babies are weighed and measured by workers of the UN Children’s Fund, cereals and grains are dished out to hordes of women in bright flowing dresses. Everyone grips their World Food Programme registration card, a ticket to survival.

 “We are suffering from hunger and disease,” said Tabesa Nakwoth, 45. “We eat leaves from the trees and waterlilies.”

Air Drops

Asked to describe what they taste like, she scrunched up her face, shook her head and looked away. “We eat them because there is nothing else,” Nakwoth said.

After warning of a potential famine, the threat has receded thanks to good rains and pre-positioning of food aid, mostly through WFP airdrops, Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, said in a Sept. 17 interview.

Joyce Luma, WFP’s South Sudan country director who was in Jeich last week, said ramped-up humanitarian assistance has been vital to saving millions of lives across the country.

“It’s been food from air drops, and the health center staff are identifying children that are malnourished and providing additional care,” she said.

Catholic Relief Services helps distribute boxes of food that the women carry on their heads back to their villages.

Luma said while a famine has been averted, worries remain for early next year.

Malnutrition Rates

“We are very concerned that malnutrition rates that have stabilized now will start going up in the beginning of the year, particularly in the dry season as people don’t have access to resources,” she said.

Food shortages are critical in most areas of Jonglei, according to the Famine Early Warning System Network’s August report. It’s a similar scenario in the oil-rich Upper Nile and Unity states in the north, where rebels are also positioned.

“I’ve been crying a lot,” Jorjor said. “I am still sad because this war is continuing.”

Nakwoth said the fighting now is worse than when the south was battling Sudanese forces for independence.

“They are killing civilians, this was not so much like that before,” she said. “The men should stop fighting, Nuers and Dinkas can be friends one day.”

Jorjor cut in and all the women nodded, “let peace come to South Sudan.”

Featured image: Samir Bol/ AFP 

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