UGANDA - Golda's story

Dropping everything, and running for your life.

It sounds like something from a horror movie but for millions of people from South Sudan this was a reality.

Indiscriminate killing by fighters on both sides of the conflict in the world’s newest nation.

Towns and villages across the country have been abandoned.

Golda was the last to leave her town, Kajo Keji.

It has been described as a ghost town, with 98 percent of the population fleeing to Uganda.

Remembering the day she fled Golda says “We knew at that moment that if we had stayed we would have got caught in the cross fire, and we would have been killed.”

“The day we fled, we were packing up office equipment to leave, then all of a sudden the ground was shaking with the gunfire.”

That fighting has been ongoing in that part of South Sudan for over a year.

Local news reports detail how at least 20 people were killed as recently as last week in Kajo Keji.

There are stories of barbaric acts taking place, some of the worst human rights violations known to have taken place.

Golda recounts a story of an elderly disabled man, “he had been paralysed for quite some time.”

“His children tried to take him to safety.”

“He told his family to leave him by the side of the road.”

“They won’t hurt me, I am just a paralysed man he said.”

“When the fighters came they shot him through the throat.”

The conflict has torn families apart, women and children fled to safety while men stayed behind to look after farms or join the fighting.

Either there are thousands of people now living in Uganda not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

Golda says families has no choice, “it’s something nobody should have to go through, especially the women and children.”

“But if they hadn’t have fled they would have been the most vulnerable.”

South Sudan as a nation was only formed in 2011.

In its short existence things have gone from bad to worse.

The government was formed on a power sharing basis between two ethnic tribes, with the President and Vice President coming from different sides.

2013 saw the start if this civil war, when President Kiir dismissed VP Macha over fears of a coup.

The allegations sparked tit for tat violence in town’s right across the country.

Two years later a peace deal was on the cards, but broken promises and violations of terms jeopardised the agreement and violence had again broken out by 2016.

Looking ahead to the future Golda says “For as long as we have the same leaders in power, the conflict won’t end.”

“For those in the refugee camps they will stay there for as long as the leaders stay in power.”

“The leaders continue to be in selfish and not sort out their differences which is unfortunate.

Golda now works with refugees in the Bidi Bidi settlement as part of EAst African Ministries

That organisation has partnererd with Fields of Life in a number of projects, including bringing clean water to communities in Northern Uganda.

If you want to support the Fields of Life East Africa Emergency Appeal you can find details on here.