S.Sudan civilians reduced to scavenging on swamp islands

But a power struggle between leaders hundreds of kilometres (miles) away in the new nation's capital Juba in mid-December revived old ethnic tensions between South Sudan's largest Dinka tribe and secondary Nuer tribe, then poisoned a shallow well of unity, leaving villagers behind enemy and tribal lines.

- Lives destroyed -

In Panyjiar, an overwhelmingly Nuer area bordered by a Dinka majority, the only place to hide is the swamp.

"Our problem here is the government. That's why we're afraid," said Simon Kuol, a local representative for the state-run Relief and Rehabilitation Commission.

From the air, the circles of ash and black lines snaking around villages appear to show a scorched earth campaign, with even UN buildings in the county capital Panyjiar collapsing in on themselves.

"There were police uniforms, army uniforms and some with civilian clothes," says William Ter, one of nine gunshot wounded patients admitted to Nyal's only clinic run by Sign of Hope (SoH), a small German charity.

The swamplands around Nyal on February 23, 2014, in South Sudan's Unity state, are now providing …

The hard lumps on his leg from the shrapnel make an already elderly man shuffle, but the iodine soaked cloth rested on a seeping wound where a chunk of hand should be makes him suck in the stale air and wince with his good eye.

But Ter says his physical suffering is nothing compared to the pain of losing a life's work.

"They took all my cows and burnt my house," he said. "I have nothing. I can't do anything now."

And helping even those who are not stuck on islands will be difficult. Benjamin Bangoang, who ran SoH's dispensary in Kanynhial, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Nhial, fled to the swamps with his family.

- Mass killings -

After seeing six people shot dead, including two women running near him in the swamps, he hid for days in the dark bog.

Compelled back to help the wounded, he returned to find only smouldering ruins and bodies.

"They came and shot guns around the village and they killed people. Even the drugs that are usually kept with me, they burnt them," Bangoang said.

Peace talks being held in Ethiopia have provided little reprieve from atrocities sweeping silently through villages. In major towns decimated several times by opposing forces, a handful of anonymous aid workers speak of mass rape and killings.

Some have watched executions just metres (yards) outside United Nations bases, where tens of thousands of people are hiding from soldiers and militiamen hunting house to house for the ethnic rivals. Others have been hacked to death inside these refuges, as former neighbours and colleagues turned on one another.

In Panyjiar, which was devastated by floods last year, the increasingly brutal tribal conflict has left Gatkoy and many others high and dry: desperate not to become involved but hoping the ethnic tides will soon allow them back to shore.

There are major fears of a major outbreak of pneumonia and malaria, as well as the diarrhoeal diseases already affecting many stick-legged but heavily paunched children.

Despite the pain of seeing his children waste away, Gatkoy is determined to stay for at least two months, when the rains come, and only if he has stockpiled enough black roots to see the family through the next six months.

"We worry that when we go out, we will lose our lives," he said.

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• South Sudan

Source http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-civilians-reduced-scavenging-swamp-islands-092345167.html