woman walks past a group of young men after collecting water just as the sun set inside the UN Protection of Civilians site in Bentiu. [ © Dominic Nahr / MAPS]
Refugees, Migration and displacement

“The first challenge is disease, the second is security.” 

"Before the crisis, things were OK and people were having goats, cows, money and shelters. Leer, Adok, Mayendit, Koch and Guit were very effected by the conflict. They could catch you and put you inside the house when it is burning and kill you like that. What brought me here mostly was that there was a lot of raping in my village, so people were just running wherever they will be safe. 

"Everyone came separately. Even the children may have ran with a different family. Everyone was scattered or killed. When we got here, all we were hearing are things like “this one is killed, this one is here or this one is looking for you.” So what I was feeling when I came here to the PoC was that I was safe, not like outside. They gave me food, water and shelter. 

Most of the women here are widows because their husbands have been killed. There are challenges here. The first challenge is disease and the second challenge is security. We get robbed or places are looted. This is also part of what we are experiencing. There is a disease called Hepatitis here and it is killing people, children and the adults. Even raping is happening here too. Sometimes they can just break your door and rape you inside. So it is happening in here, but even though they are doing this here, it's still better than outside. 

The food is not enough, water not enough, everything is not enough and when you have children it forces you to go outside. We depend on going outside to collect the firewood and going outside means you are going to get challenges. Even the men when they are going to collect the firewood or burning the charcoal, they can get killed. When women go out, they are getting raped on the way, so people are just suffering everywhere. It's better for us that we survive in here. 

We've heard there is an agreement, but we're not quite sure if there is really peace or not. I heard it when people came in to talk to us, but the community here is not sure. Even though they come and tell us that there is peace, we are doubting, but if there is peace, exactly, if we witness it, we can go outside, if not, better to be here. What I want to add is that all the women from South Sudan, all the people of South Sudan, hope for peace. If there will be peace, that will be nice."