Lessons Learned from South Sudan Protection of Civilian Sites 2013–2016

71
Six Men
Wau Shilluk, a settlement site on the Nile
10 km north of the Malakal PoC Site
20–40 years old, Shilluk
The six men came from a village south of Malakal, but
they moved to Wau Shilluk when the fighting began in
December 2013. They did not want to go to the Malakal
PoC site as there is no freedom there and you cannot
leave the base without being targeted. After four months
they moved to Kwadok for safety as the SPLA-IO was
trying to advance to the west side of the Nile River.
Once the SPLA-IO retreated a couple months later, they
returned to Wau Shilluk.
The men took their wives to the Malakal PoC site in
August 2015 due to a lack of food. They were surviving
only on the leaves of the lalop tree and fish. They paid 50
SSP per person to a canoe operator to sneak them across
the river at night. The UNMISS river battalion then
escorted their families to the Malakal PoC site. Now it
is only 30 SSP for a trip from Wau Shilluk to Malakal,
but before it was much more dangerous and so it cost
much more and could only be done in darkness. If the
SPLA finds you, they can either take all your belongings
or place a bullet in your stuff and accuse of you of being
a soldier. The men send food and dried fish to their
families in the PoC site through a relatives, and they call
their wives to go meet them at the Nile River to pick it
up.
The men said they will leave their families in the PoC
site until peace returns, but they are worried by the 28
state decree by President Kiir. Unless that decision is
reversed, the men predict that there will be renewed
fighting. If there is peace, they will return to their village,
but if they hear there will be war they will first move the
women and children in Wau Shilluk away and then the
men will join Olony to fight for their land rights. People
are expecting to return to where they are from when
there is peace, including those from the east side of the
Nile.