South Sudan: Fear Persists Among South Sudan's Displaced

Rumbek — The 101 civilians holed up in two large tents and a washroom block in a UN base in the South Sudan city of Rumbek may form one of the smallest such groups now protected by peacekeepers, but their conditions and fears are typical of the 75,000 people now living in such bases across the country.

"We haven't faced this before," said Rejoice Chan, who works as a recovery, reintegration and peacebuilding officer for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Around a dozen armoured personnel carriers and trucks form a three-metre-high wall on one side of the camp. Rocks have been thrown by the host community at the IDPs on two occasions. The trucks act as a barrier and a deterrent. "They think there's someone inside," a camp resident said.

The UN here is doing what it can - providing protection and limited medical assistance and shelter, as well as advice to IDPs, and is coordinating assistance - but it is not a permanent solution. "We're not a humanitarian organization, we're peacekeepers," Chan said.

Klaus Steiglitz, vice-chairman of Sign of Hope, an international humanitarian organization, likens the conflict to pulling at the thread that holds the social fabric of South Sudan together. "Where we had integration of different tribes in a city, now, as the conflict breaks out, disintegration takes place," he said.

Nuer students who had chosen to study in Rumbek now only feel safe with UN protection in this predominantly Dinka town.

A number of the IDPs in Rumbek were serving as police officers on the border with Warrap, another predominantly Dinka state, when the crisis began. David Kiuch, one of the police officers, says he was disarmed by his superiors on grounds of ethnicity. When quarrels broke out between members of the two ethnic groups and those who were still armed shot three people, he and the rest of the Nuers fled, he says. Authorities picked them up and delivered them to Rumbek police, before they brought them here.

Mary Nyataba, 28, a Nuer from Bentiu, was passing through Lakes State on a bus when the crisis hit. She immediately got off the bus and got a motorbike driver to take her to the nearest UNMISS base. "I don't know anyone here in Rumbek," she said.