‘Fire came from the sky and burned them’
Thousands of people have fled the South Sudanese town of Akobo and surrounding areas of Jonglei state, where the army says it has intensified strikes against its enemies to regain control.
The latest fighting has led the UN to warn of a possible return to full-blown civil war in the world’s youngest country.
Nyawan Koang, 30, and her five children had to walk for two days to reach the dusty village of Duk.
They had fled Ayod, an isolated and largely pastoral county in Jonglei state, where armed clashes raged between the military and their opponents who had been strengthening their presence there since the start of the year.
“We were [wedged] between two forces: the SPLA-IO and the government. And their bullets are killing us,” she told the BBC.
Government forces are trying to retake territory from loyalists of First Vice President Riek Machar, suspended from office after being accused of plotting to overthrow President Salva Kiir. Machar has been under house arrest in Juba for a year while awaiting trial for murder, treason and crimes against humanity. He denies all accusations.
Alongside Machar is the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO), which has seized towns in Jonglei and other neighboring states.
As they advanced, threatening Bor, the capital of Jonglei, they left devastated communities behind. Entire villages were burned and civilians killed indiscriminately. The government responded quickly – and fiercely – by deploying more troops to attack its rivals’ positions.
But civilians were also attacked, including Nyawan’s family.
She lost both her parents when an airstrike hit their small thatched hut.
“Fire came from the sky and burned them,” she said.
Nyawan and his family are among more than 280,000 people forced from their homes following recent clashes. Thousands of them are in Duk, where aid organizations are providing food, medicine and other essentials.
Yet other lives risk being disrupted, if not completely destroyed, unless there is a change in political direction.
Fighting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his rival-turned-MP Riek Machar first erupted in 2013, just two years after the euphoria of independence.
A 2018 peace deal ended the civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people, but it was never properly implemented and relations between the two became increasingly tense amid ethnic tensions and sporadic violence.
It is not clear how many people – civilians or combatants – were killed in the renewed conflict. A report by the United Nations human rights body found 189 civilian deaths in January alone.
“Civilians are most affected by an increase in indiscriminate attacks, including aerial bombardments, deliberate killings, kidnappings and conflict-related sexual violence,” said Volker Türk, head of the body.
Nyawan remembers seeing several dead bodies as she fled towards Duk. “But I don’t know [which side] killed them. »
As government forces and SPLA-IO fighters, supported by another armed group called the White Army, fight for control of territory, the lives of innocent civilians are being sacrificed.
“There is no army in the world that has fought without civilians being caught in the crossfire,” Information Minister Ateny Wek Ateny told the BBC in his office in Juba, the country’s capital.
He affirms that the army is “responsible” in its conduct and adds that his government is “doing its best” and has “taken measures [to ensure] civilians are not involved in the situation.” But he concludes that “civilians who are in the wrong place at the wrong time could be caught in the crossfire. There is no way to prevent this. »
Yet some attacks against civilians appear deliberate.
By the government’s own admission, during the last week of February, more than 20 civilians – including women and the elderly – were executed at point-blank range in Ayod by government soldiers who took control of the area.
Army spokesman Major General Lul Ruai Koang told the BBC that soldiers from two platoons and their commanders had been detained following internal investigations and were now facing court martial.
As part of the government fallout that preceded this latest outbreak of violence, President Kiir not only fired Machar, but also his wife, Interior Minister Angelina Teny, as well as several other senior government officials.
The reason for Marchar’s detention and trial lies in his alleged ties to White Army fighters who took control of a military base from the national army last year, authorities say.
But Machar’s supporters say the move is politically motivated and a violation of South Sudan’s power-sharing agreement.
“We suffered a lot”
Like many people seeking refuge and help in Duk, Hoth Wan Kornyom, community leader and father of seven, lost a loved one in the violence.
His brother was shot and killed and his own house was burned down. As his fellow Uror County residents fled the conflict, he recalls, some parents were separated from their children and it’s unclear if they were ever reunited.
Hoth Wan Kornyom says parents and children were separated in chaos [BBC]
Neyasebit, 27, who also left Uror for Duk, said his two uncles, a brother-in-law and a younger brother were killed in airstrikes. “They were just staying at home,” she said, insisting they were not fighters.
“We suffered a lot. That’s why we fled,” she told the BBC. “Both camps” are the perpetrators of such attacks, according to her.
The resurgence of violence in Jonglei has exacerbated the state’s already dire humanitarian needs. According to the World Food Program (WFP), 60% of Jonglei’s two million inhabitants suffer from hunger. Across South Sudan, 10 million people out of 14 million are in need of food assistance.
“South Sudan is one of the most complex environments in the world for delivering humanitarian assistance,” Adham Affandy, WFP’s acting country director, told the BBC.
“We face conflict…natural disasters, as well as inter-communal violence, economic instability and difficulties in physical access.”
The country also has one of the least developed road networks in the world, with only 400 km (248 miles) of South Sudan’s 20,000 km of roads being paved, according to a 2022 study.
During the rainy season – which can last up to eight months a year – around 80% of South Sudan is inaccessible, Affandy said.
This has forced humanitarian groups to rely on planes to deliver aid – at enormous cost.
But the most pressing problem is insecurity. When clashes erupted in January, many humanitarian agencies withdrew from conflict zones, only to return once the violence had subsided.
Earlier this month, the military asked humanitarian agencies – and some 50,000 civilians – to leave Akobo County, one of the strongholds of SPLA-IO forces in Jonglei, as it prepared to launch what it called a “second phase” offensive.
Since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has faced several cycles of fighting.
It is also affected by instability throughout the region. Over the past three years, more than a million people have crossed its borders from its northern neighbor Sudan, where a devastating civil war is raging.
Today, many observers fear that the 2018 power-sharing agreement that brought relative calm could be broken – something millions across the country fear.
“The South Sudanese are exhausted,” the WFP’s Affandy told the BBC. “They want peace.”
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