Sudan before the separation of the cessation of south Sudan was the
largest country, the African continent. What's okay? And so for us coming
from the south having to you travel all the way to the north. It's two
guys about 2.5 or three years truly over three years with our Children.
Eventually. Yeah, we'll just uh you know, we didn't have means of
transportation. We don't have money. And so we would it would always be
you know, traveling at sort of distance getting off and staying in that
challenge to make a living and raise enough money and then take another
majority. It just happened that to stop. Do do do you remember the day
that you left? Do you have any memory of that day? You fled Remember? Yeah.
It was early on in the morning. 5 6 a.m. The sun was still coming up.
We just heard gunshots
as the routine was in hearing gunshots. That's there's always been someone
telling the Children and women elderly to go into the heart and go hype
and that's exactly what we did. So we went inside, Some people were hiding
under beds. The city cut into each other and a few minutes later somebody
comes in the door and says it's a major attack. We can't hold it back. You
don't have to get out and run. Just run for your life. Yeah, that's
exactly what happened.
And did you stay with your family? I stayed with my brother actually at
that moment we were separated still my mother,
my daughter. I mean my sisters for ran a separate way of my brother and I
ran a separate line, but luckily later on you were able to, when the fire
and the attack was way behind, we were able to the truth roads converge
eventually and everybody else was able. And where was your father? Was
your father? Our father. We left him behind. He joined later in the day.
Oh, okay. Yeah. And so as they fled because you were under attack and who
attacked the village? You know, it's it was a rebel rebel section there,
it was rebel renegades. Uh And it's an interesting thing when you hear
about the South Sudanese or the civil war, people always think the major
rebel movement, you know, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, our movement
versus the central government in cartoons. People people see it as just
those, just those two sides. But there was a lot going on, even within the
rebel movement, it wasn't always a united faction, that was always
defection. Those defections affected. It's also really differently. And in
my case, that's exactly what happened. two rival sections with the rebel
movement in the south that we're in good terms, that were attacking each
other. So, one was based in my village in that in that section was
attacked. Okay, so like factional divisions within the rebel movement, it
sounds like modern day Syria right now with the rebel movements, there's
many factions or what's going on in South Sudan area. So the the and so,
uh, your village happened to be from one faction and presumably another
faction had attacked. Okay. And so then when you fled, how long were you
apart before you finally reunited with your family? I mean, how much time
passed there with hours? Days, but it was in the morning would say it was
around five or six in the morning. That happens. We ran I believe we met
later around 34 pm. So it's the same day in the reunited. Okay. And that
was probably extremely fortunate
actually
for people who couldn't run for their lives who couldn't hold enough or
young enough and some civilians got shot because there was a crossfire
literally there's a war going on body alive. And did your did your maybe
you learn this later from talking to your parents? But did your parents
understand immediately that they could not return? I mean, it's like this
is not just an attack and we just need to stay away for a couple of days
and then we can go back to they knew they knew it was a large
exodus of people from that job. They knew they knew because what happens
in terms if you get captured by the other faction,
especially if you're a young man or or an adult automatically accused
being part of the other faction that belt. So your life would be dangerous
, your life being the And we learned that the actually the time was taking
over. So the rebel faction put and hold them back to actually, right. They
take over now even though, as you said, your family or subsistence farmers
and raise livestock was either your father or mother involved at all
politically in this faction or were they? No, but I think, you know, I
think my father was about to get involved.
He wasn't recruited remote rebel faction and there was a lot of constantly
improving. Sure young man dolls, everybody. Yeah, right. I heard my dad
was not, not by forest, but he had, he had an in low that was involved in
, oh, okay. That was involved was involved somebody in the family. I think
he convinced him, uh, to support the leaves and not, uh, he had a gun, but
I don't think he was because he was old as well. So who was my dad? Oh, he
wasn't, he was an older man. And so now when you, when your family
reunited then, at what point at that point did you just like we're just
going, we're just going north and yeah, we just Did you have any
possessions?
Really? We ran away? Maybe maybe a piece of cloth. Yeah. Uh, she's a
clothes or a bag. And the decision was made. We just need to go to get
away from here and go, where, where were you guys going to go northward
northward northward from the south. Just running northward because it's
safer actually the time we were going to was viva, which is a disputed
region now between the south, quote. Okay. Both countries have a claim. It
was called what? A
e I o K. So that's the time where we're going to after our village was
attacked. We're going through that town and we went there, we stayed there
for a few weeks and not and then I just kept hearing news of things
getting.
So when you would go to these villages and your family would have to work
just to make enough money to keep going. Um Did they know people in those
communities or did they just sort of show up? And there were groups of
refugees and there were groups of refugees, Most of the people that we
knew. It's either we know personally or we knew them because they were
part of the same village that we were in South Sudan or the same class.
Mhm. Mhm. Because these, he's out, you know, these are mechanisms of
building social relationships in South Sudan. When you introduce your soul
, if you're from the same plan, it's more likely. Okay, someone else, you
know, knows them. And were you part of a specific tribe as well? Yeah, I'm
a Dinka Dink. Okay. And we're most of the people,
everything in terms of the people moving headed north and you would
communicate with as well
region. Yeah, we're from the south. Hard when you traveled, what was it
exclusively on foot was on foot was on foot from my village to a buffet
was on foot but from a to headed northward, which is a car because you
could make what makes some money or what could make some money. But there
were transportation to something. You're seeing a difference of
infrastructure and services. Oh, okay. Because in your rural area there
weren't passable roads, that sort of thing. Okay. I got it. And uh, and so
then uh, and then when you were traveling north, was it just your family
or were sometimes you in larger groups? There were no larger groups. Some
people checking the same joint. Yeah. So then, um, so then what were the
dangers that you faced along the way? I know that I've heard some refugees
talk about uh huh uh, soldiers are being attacked sometimes if they were
in a group and you were traveling that government soldiers might attack as
you were traveling. Did you face any of that? Was it? Was that a real
danger for you for you and your family? No, No, because so be a was
occupied by, you know, pro government soldiers Programming soldiers. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. I was under the government protection. Mm And the same story
was true as there weren't any issues with rebels, but they allowed you to
come in and they, even though they knew you were going from, especially
were civilians. Okay. If they could detect that if you were a man able
bodied person from the south and they could detect that you were Mhm
incredible memory? The trauma report? But if you were just family members
, elderly Children. Okay. So your, your siblings were young enough. Yeah.
That they weren't old enough to be recruited as soldiers. And your father
was old enough. That yeah. But he wouldn't suspect, wouldn't. Yeah. And so
why did it take so long to get to ultimately where you want to go to
cartoon? That's money because we didn't have enough pay for transportation.
Uh, and so that's why we took over time. You know, we would Pay enough to
take another mile or two miles and we would get off, whichever time we
were in. Just
start to do something to raise something some way. That's something. Yeah.
You were very young. So at that time. So did you have any comprehension
at all about where you were going or why you were going there? I did, yeah
, I was young. But the life in the village makes you grow up faster
because everything is hands on. You've got to be tough. Yeah, helping the
farm or help with lifestyle. It's just very community based. You learn how
to speak well, You learn how to respect people, take some new ones in the
community. That was clear to me. Uh, what was going. I mean, you
understood that you were leaving obviously physical dangers and that kind
of threat. Um, but did you understand that we're actually trying to get to
a place that is safe and we're going to be better off? Was it was that
just comprehensible to you at that age? Is safety? I could comprehend, But
you know, whether how different the place was from where I was born or
raised? Yeah. I didn't necessarily know what cartoon was. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
and so then, uh, so it took you, uh, two or three years to get there. Yeah.
And