Sudan’s violent civil wars displaced millions, with thousands fleeing the south to escape the conflict.
Since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, around two million people have returned home. However, more than four million people remain displaced throughout Sudan and South Sudan including many who have been affected by ongoing local fighting.
Janet’s story
Janet Buwa, like others, is yet to see real peace in South Sudan.
In early 2009, when Lords Resistance Army rebels attacked a nearby village, Janet and her neighbours in Diko fled taking only what they could carry. Fearing for their lives they walked for several days before reaching the village of Wittoh.
‘We came without anything, no food, not any thing for cover,’ recalls Janet. ‘Children aged as young as five walked. It was very far, but we travelled from that place without even having water for sometimes a whole day.’
The community in Wittoh welcomed them, but with few resources they could do little to help the displaced.
Support provided by Christian Aid partner Mundri Relief and Development Association (MRDA) and other humanitarian agencies was literally a lifeline in the weeks after they arrived.
Small loans from MRDA enabled people to earn enough to survive. But more than 18 months later, the community’s future remains uncertain.
‘We’re afraid to go back,’ says Janet. ‘I really miss my home and if God helped us and the LRA was no longer there, we would want to go back. Living out of your own home is not easy.’
The long journey south
Despite the ongoing threat from the LRA and inter-tribal fighting – which has displaced more than 360,000 in the last two years – tens of thousands of people returned to their homelands in the south to take part in southern Sudan’s referendum in January 2011.
Many made the journey with no idea how to get there or what they would find when they arrived but it was important for them to take part in this historic vote.
Now the ballot has taken place and its results announced, their future is still uncertain but their hope for peace is unwavering.
