By Phillip Mbugo William
“Why should the international community and our government continue promising us that they will flush the LRA out of our soil?” These are the words on everybody’s lips in a tiny village in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state.
According to 33 year old Mbiko Alfred who comes from Bure-angburu village in Nzara County, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) raiders have caused real fear amongst local residents to the extent that nobody sleeps at night.
He says, “Last week, I was resting in my house before darkness; I heard someone scream outside my house; I also heard people’s footsteps as if they were running in different directions; when I came out, I came face to face with LRA attackers; I survived death by a whisker after running into a nearby thicket,” says Mbiko.
Mbiko recalls that the attack was just one amongst a series that remain sporadic and deadly. Innocent lives have been lost, children kidnapped, women raped and young men abducted, he recounts.
The LRA is a Ugandan rebel group which continues to cause havoc in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Lives have been lost, we do not know how we will overcome this situation as our appeals to the government to beef up security personnel have fell on deaf ears,” adds Mbiko.
Asenta Valerio, who also comes from the same village as Mbiko, displays scars on her legs which she got when trying to escape the wrath of LRA attackers two years ago. Despite her moving ordeal, Asenta is proud to vividly narrate her story. She was abducted alongside her four children aged between 9 and 26 years. “We were very lucky that village boys commonly referred to as Arrow Boys mounted an immediate chase and saved us. We could not be alive today if the Arrow Boys did not rescue us”, says Asenta.
Sporadic attacks in this remote and small village have led to a high drop out rate among school age going children while their parents, most of them farmers, have deserted their farms and fled for fear of renewed LRA attacks. Most of those affected by this situation have sought refuge in government administrative units situated in Yambio and Nzara county headquarters.
The recurring attacks, residents say, are a clear manifestation of the government’s lack of commitment to tackle the LRA menace once for all. Justin Miskin is the coordinator of the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC), the agency that is tasked with handling issues that concern internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees and returnees.
He says that there are a huge number of IDPs who fled their homes in Bure-angburu village and are now living under trees and makeshift tarpaulin and tents across Nadari Stream, Nzara town, without access to clean water and shelter. “Most of the IDPs who fled their homes are afraid to go back to their homes because of the fear of more attacks from the LRA and decide to stay in town for safety,” confesses Miskin.
