Displaced from Nuba Mountains, IDPs struggle under tough conditions

Dhieu Williams (Juba, South Sudan). Views expressed are the author’s own.

Last week, shortly before South Sudan independence declaration, I paid a visit to Unity State. I flew by helicopter with the United Nation Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) to Unity State, which borders the north. The State is currently hosting thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Nuba and South Kordofan regions who have fled the aerial bombings by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF).

As South Sudan got its independence, thousands of people mainly the Nuba people were being forced to flee their homes in South Kordofan. South Kordofan just like Abyei lies on the border between North Sudan and South Sudan and the two regions are supposed to hold votes to determine which of the independent Sudan states they want to be in.

We flew to Jau, Pariang County where I saw people battered by the war, braving the scorching sun and quietly I listened to the harrowing stories of devastation, starvation and death.

The condition of these IDPs is indescribable. Some of them half naked, told me stories about how they walked miles, how they fled, and of the loss and separation of families. At Pariang, they arrived and for many hours they were here waiting for humanitarian assistance. The mood in Juba was very different, most of the people very optimistic but these people who fled South Kordofan were not sure they would live another day.

I met an 85year-old woman who had fled together with her daughter and grand children. They left behind nothing; all their property and houses were set ablaze by SAF.

“I have no food, no shelter over my head, I left all my belonging and run here for safety yet the suffering continues,” she said.  She left behind some of her family and has no idea whether they are alive, safe somewhere or the worst happened.

Another displaced mother was at the camp run by different humanitarian NGOs and the Government of South Sudan.

“I came here running, my children run on their own, my husband too ran to separate direction. We have not met and since that day I wonder if he they were killed or survived.”

She told me they had ran with nothing, many did not even have clothes on. A few hours later, this woman got information that her husband had arrived in Panyang, another center hosting civilians from South Kordofan who have fled the fighting. No word was heard about her children.

I met Miabek Lang Miading, the commissioner who said a total of 6,337 persons are now being hosted in the different Payams (parishes) in Pariang County. The medical officer I met in Pariang, John Jau Tiop said most of the IDPs were fresh arrivals due to fighting taking place in Nuba Mountains and southern Kordufan, which borders Pariang County. He told me they were seeing many cases of diarrhoea due to lack of water and then many IDPs were down with malaria and the medicines were inadequate.

Miading said they had seen many people with several gunshot wounds. Most of the IDPs who reach Unity State arrive by foot.  In the past week, an unpublished report from UNMIS, indicated that the Sudanese army had carried out widespread aerial bombardments killings. According to the report there have been executions. At the same time Satellite Sentinel, a project monitoring the borders of North and South Sudan revealed visual evidence of mass graves in South Kordofan State. Some human rights groups have said that the Sudan Army forces attacks on civilians and churches tantamount to war crimes.

For now thousands of people displaced who are stuck in camps in South Sudan have little hope of returning soon as the bombings continue.