A widow from Mayendit, South Sudan, who husband was killed in fighting last
year.

In a parallel universe, Nyal, nestled in the vast Sudd wetlands on the
White Nile, could be an idyllic tourist spot. There are no cell phones, no
cars, and the cackle of African ibises mixes with roosters to wake you at
dawn. People live in small thatched huts and wander along the wide main
thoroughfare in the evening, stopping to chat with friends for a while or
to take sweet black tea in a tea house. Small boys wander up and down
selling bunches of fish. Women in bright clothes return at dusk to hang the
clothes they washed in the river.

But the stories people tell are of their terrifying flight through the
crocodile infested swamp last year after government forces launched attacks
further north in Leer and Mayendit from June to October. Men were shot,
women and girls were raped, and people too old to run away were burned in
their houses. Many of the worst attacks happened after a peace deal between
the government and opposition rebels was signed last August. People fled to
islands in the swamp. There was nothing to eat but waterlilies and
waterlily roots and no humanitarian food drops. Some waded and swam for
days to safety in Nyal.

The only sound of engines in Nyal is the growl of generators of
humanitarian organizations like Oxfam, which is providing assistance,
water, sanitation and training female canoe operators. And the shriek of
the Russian Antonovs swooping low overhead and dropping World Food Program
food packs.

Some people here still haven’t heard the news that a transitional
government has been set up in the capital, Juba. But after what happened,
few trust the peace yet.