The agony of losing six children to a civil war.
Women and children in this era have become the spoils of war. Their deaths are considered collateral damages, their bodies are molested in battles and are used as tools of revenge or to intimidate the opponents.
A 2017 article by the Humanitarian Practice Network reports that in Unity State, civilians spoke of the systematic enslavement of women and girls in rape camps run by government-aligned militia groups, and both the African Union (AU) and Human Rights Watch produced reports documenting rape and gang rape, beatings, sexual assault and forced labour.
New accounts of sexual violence against women and girls in the conflict emerged frequently in the media and International non-governmental organizations’ [NGO] reports, detailing widespread horrors that have rarely been seen since the Rwandan genocide. Some female survivors have lost count of the number of times they have been raped, and in certain parts of the country sexual violence perpetrated by armed men has become so commonplace that it is difficult to find a woman or girl who has not witnessed or experienced it first-hand, the report indicated.
Joyce Abau, a mother of 9, did not just lose her husband during the war I Bentiu but also 6 of her 9 children inside the Protection of Civilians Site (PoCs) in Bentiu.
Abau introduced me to 3 of what is left of her 9 children, her two daughters aged 9 and 7 years and a 4-year-old boy.
Her husband was killed when the SPLA-IO attacked government forces in what was known as the fiercest violence ever in the area on 15th of April 2014.
The 47 year old did not horribly lose a husband but also watched her children disappear from her defenseless hand.
“It is always painful losing a child but mine was beyond. I did not only lose one or two but six. All of them died on separate dates but within the period of May and July 2014, just a month after their father was killed,” says the 47-year-old.
Abau’s children died of unknown diseases which evolved from floodwater contaminated with fresh vicious within the PoC.
She says between May and August 2014, people were living knee-deep in floodwater contaminated with raw sewage. Abau says there were occasions when people slept while standing.
She says those venturing outside the confines of the camp into the conflict zone risked being raped by armed men. Therefore, they had to watch their children die. “Sometimes I stand with my two year old son in water until morning when it’s flooded,” she explains.
“We had to bear the situation because if we went outside
, the armed men would come and rape us, including our girls,” Abau said adding that the armed men even kill the women sometimes when the resist.
An anonymous source working for World Health Organization, who did not want to be mentioned for security reasons revealed that a disease which broke out inside the PoCs from flood contaminated water killed more than 100 children in 2014.
He said efforts by WHO to contain the disease failed and thus many lives of children were lost as a result.
Abau moved out of the PoC in fear that she could lose the remaining three of her children. She says that the fear of the conflict was no more in her mind because she had already lost conscious.
“I ran to the PoC because of my children. So that they can be safe but after six of them died I saw no life and hope in the hands of the UN peacekeepers,” Abua said. She said she preferred taking the risk to move and stay where there was no flooding outside the PoC to give a chance of living to her remaining 3 children.
Within Bentiu and Rubkona towns, most school-aged children have dropped out of school with no hope to education. Every now and then more children are exposed to the risk of kidnapping and abuse from soldiers on their way to school.
In addition to depriving children of basic human rights like health, education and economic stability, the war had resulted in cultural deficiency since some ethnic groups lost their sense of identity.
This has resulted in psychological problems as evidenced by their aggressive behaviors while trauma and anxiety plague women and children in and outside the PoCs in Bentiu.
“Most of us are traumatized for sure but there is nothing we can do. We just sit and wait for our turn from God,” Abau said thoughtfully.
She hopes the current peace can hold in hopes that the country will stabilize and provide a conducive environment for her remaining children live a good life and have access to education and proper health care unit in the state.
She laments that her kids are unable to go to school due to lack of funds to finance their studies and insecurity which creates fear of any sparkle anytime.
She calls on the government and other rival armed factions in the country to shun the violence and grasp peacefully solutions to dealing with their affairs.
“Our children want to study but I cannot afford to pay them and also the security is not good. Sometimes your child is in school and you are in the forest then you hear gunshots and these are kids they can easily get killed in crossfire,” Abau states.
Between 2014 and 2016 Bentiu experienced the most devastating and catastrophic violence, including sexual violence, based on ethnic grounds.
These prolonged violence reported has forced many people to flee for safety and seek hideout in the surrounding bushes and swamplands exposing them to many waterborne diseases, especially the lactating mothers and their children.
In November Medicins Sans Frontiers reported that 125 women and girls were raped in a ten day spree of violence in the town of Bentiu as they tried to move to food distribution centers in the area.
With the formation of the Unity government this Saturday February 22, 2020, there is hope for a lasting peace that would finally enable citizens to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
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