Translate page with Google
SECTIONS
Media file: GEC_5060_10731.jpg
Great Nile Petroleum Operating Corporation. Bentiu, South Sudan. Image by Cedric Gerbehaye / Agence VU. January 2011.

I have never witnessed the grief of a stranger as I did on this afternoon. I was visiting a group of people who had fled Abyei following the attack last weekend by Sudanese government forces. They ran and ran. And then kept walking for five days until they reached Wau, the capital of Western Bahr el Ghazal. They are tired, hungry, and most of all, traumatized.

It was here that I ended up standing beside a woman I have never met, the moment she was told that her son had been killed. Her wail came from deep within. As the scene unfolded I felt a step removed. Uncomfortable. Witnessing her grief while not being at all part of it. And yet I stayed. She tried to tell me something. She spoke no English or Arabic. My translator was suddenly nowhere in sight, and I don't speak Dinka. Do I leave to find him, or do I stay and hold your hand and pretend I am understanding you?

Among what was now a gathered crowd, almost entirely of women and children, I caught the eye of one man. Help, I communicated without speaking. He came over. "She says her son was killed by an airplane. She says she does not know where his wife and children are. She says he is the only son she has left."

The scene I witnessed is not an isolated one. The people of Abyei all fled in panic. Some were left behind. Many became separated along the way. Those who have reached safety in Wau are desperately seeking news from each new wave of arrivals.

RELATED TOPICS

Governance

Topic

Governance

Governance
teal halftone illustration of praying hands

Topic

Religion

Religion
war and conflict reporting

Topic

War and Conflict

War and Conflict
pink halftone illustration of a hand underneath a floating feather

Topic

Peace Initiatives

Peace Initiatives

Support our work

Your support ensures great journalism and education on underreported and systemic global issues