Md. Taqi Yasir

Mary and her family were members of the Nuer tribe in South Sudan, caught up in a vicious power struggle between the new country’s President Salva Kiir, a member of the Dinka tribe, and his Vice President, Riek Machar, a Nuer. Their war, fought largely along ethnic lines, has turned the northern part of the country into a wasteland. At least 50,000 people have been killed, according to the U.N., nearly 4 million face famines, and another 2.2 million have fled their homes, recounting tales of civilian murder, unwarranted afflict and even forced cannibalism. Mary and her family were among the tens of thousands of civilians seeking refuge at a U.N. peacekeeping base in the northern city of Bentiu when they ran into Kiir’s forces on the road in June 2014. The 27 year old narrated what occurred next distantly, as if she were explaining something that happened to someone else. The soldiers told Mary that they considered the Nuers in the camps to be rebels, and that they killed her sons because they couldn’t risk letting them grow up to be fighters. “We don’t kill the women and the girls,” the soldiers told Mary. “They said they would only rape us. As if rape were different than death,” said Mary, speaking in a safe house in neighboring Uganda run by Make Way Partners. This is an American Christian organization that provides housing as therapeutic care and tuition for South Sudanese orphans. They also save victims of human trafficking. After the soldiers killed Mary’s husband and sons, five of them held her down and forced her to watch as three others raped her 10 year old daughter named Nyalaat. When the men were done, Mary said, “I couldn’t even see my little girl anymore. I could only see blood.” Then the men took turns with Mary. Nyalaat died a few hours later. The whole world has a new recognition of all the personification but they don’t ever give any priority to rape case as if nothing has happened. And when it comes to African Nations, this has nothing to give anything to the world. It is a real shame and must be addressed boldly and if not it must be dealt violently.