South Sudan: words from the displaced
Audio 02:25
IDP camp near Kodok, South Sudan, April 17, 2017. REUTERS / Jok Solomun
By: Florence Morice Follow
6 mins
It is the biggest displacement crisis in Africa.
Almost 4 million South Sudanese live far from home, internally displaced or in one of the six bordering states, or one third of the population of South Sudan.
They fled insecurity or climatic shocks.
And do not return home despite the peace agreement signed in 2018.
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With his hands only as a tool, Joseph built a wooden fence that morning around the small plot of cultivation, which he set up in the main alley of the camp to feed his family. Originally from Malakal, he has been living on this site for five years. And despite the optimistic speeches of the authorities, he still does not plan to return home. “
It is true that since the 2018 agreement, some things have improved but it is moving too slowly. There are still a lot of insecurity issues. We are told about peace, but what peace? In Malakal there is no peace!
», He explains.
Ten years after the independence of South Sudan, for this former official, it is disappointment that dominates.
“
I am very disappointed.
When we were still in Sudan, I had a job.
I was a police officer.
But since then, I have been displaced, I have nothing more to do.
I had big and beautiful houses and I lost everything.
"
Anna Wore, 20, washes a few utensils in her cramped tent.
She would like to return home, but the precariousness into which the war has plunged her family, forces her to stay here.
“
We have no way to get back.
Most of my family are displaced.
My father died in the war in 2013, my brother died.
I don't even know where my big sister is.
I don't even know where they are,
”she says.
Anna feels less and less secure in this camp. After the civil war, the site was placed under the protection of the United Nations. But recently, following the peace agreement, the UN handed over this responsibility to government forces, the same forces Anna and her relatives had fled during the civil war. “
We feel insecure. We are very scared. I do not trust this peace agreement.
"
At the entrance of the camp resonate notes of traditional South Sudanese music.
This is where Deng Niah Choch set up his foundation.
A former civil servant of the Ministry of Culture after independence, he was also displaced, and brought the diversity of South Sudan to life in the camp, organizing concerts and theater workshops, certain that the ethnic mosaic of his young country was an asset and not a fatality.
“
Culture brings people together.
By learning about their history, people can soothe their trauma and all of this helps to fight the ghosts of the past
.
"
The situation is difficult, but it is always better than not having a country, he said, certain that the leaders of his country will eventually learn from their past mistakes.
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