The day that soldiers came and left more orphans to flee South Sudan
UN describes refugee crisis as the world’s fastest-growing and third-largest. Stephan Hofstatter reports
Moses Remo’s brother was planting maize and groundnuts when the soldiers came. His nephew and nieces fled into the bush as they heard gunshots from the direction of the fields. Several hours later, Remo and a neighbour went to investigate. "We found my brother’s body lying in the field," he says. They carried him back to the bush where the children were hiding and buried him there. Eliuda Aligo, 9, and his sisters Helen Ate, 16, and Mary Juan, 12, were distraught. "We told them their father is not coming back," says Remo. For the teacher in the town of Yei in South Sudan, his brother’s slaying on May 9 was the last straw. Until 2016, Yei had largely escaped the civil war ravaging the country since December 2013. But heavy fighting broke out last July between rebels led by opposition leader Riek Machar and government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir. Machar and a small band of followers fled to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo pursued by government troops, passing throug...
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