In August, fellow reporter Jason Patinkin and I crossed on foot from northern Uganda into rebel-held South Sudan. Over the course of 4 days, we walked greater than 40 miles by the bush, escorted by insurgent troopers, to make clear one of many world’s most underreported conflicts.
Reporting on South Sudan’s warfare, which started in 2013, has at all times been a problem because of the threat and logistical hurdles related to accessing distant areas the place combating takes place. However over the previous 12 months, protecting the warfare and its humanitarian fallout has turn out to be notably tough. For the reason that starting of this 12 months, South Sudan’s authorities has banned a minimum of 20 international journalists in an obvious effort to silence reporters who had a observe file of critically reporting on the federal government.
This systematic crackdown on the international press (South Sudanese journalists have lengthy risked imprisonment and dying for doing their work) coincided with two essential developments. In November 2016, the United Nations warned that the violence being dedicated towards civilians within the southern area of Equatoria risked spiraling into genocide. Then, in February, the UN declared a man-made famine, warning that 100,000 individuals have been vulnerable to ravenous to dying because of civil warfare.
Journalists in search of to cowl these occasions have been left with two equally unsavory choices: self-censorship or a dangerous journey to rebel-held components of the nation. Solely a handful of journalists have tried the latter since combating escalated in July final 12 months. For us, this was our second embed with the rebels this 12 months.
Martin Abucha (second from proper) rests together with his troops in rebel-held South Sudan. Photograph by Jason Patinkin
We set off from a city in northern Uganda at 5 within the morning, bouncing alongside a bumpy filth observe in direction of the South Sudan border. Crammed into our four-wheel drive have been insurgent commander Martin Abucha, a twin American and South Sudanese citizen who we deliberate to profile for our PBS NewsHour Weekend section, a few guides, and several other duffle luggage full of our tents, sleeping luggage, emergency medical kits and provisions to final us 4 days.
Simply because the solar started to rise above a distant vary of hills that we aimed to cross later that day, our automobile got here to a halt in entrance of a stream. Due to the wet cause, it carried extra water than standard. It was time to disembark and begin strolling, or “footing,” as South Sudanese are inclined to name it.
We took off our sneakers and waded by the stream’s chilly waters. This was the primary of a many rivers we’d should cross alongside the way in which, both on foot or in small flimsy canoes dug out from tree trunks. Every time, we dreaded the thought of falling in with our digicam gear.
The primary a part of our journey in northern Uganda felt very very like a hike by a nationwide park. Passing lovely landscapes and idyllic farming villages, one might nearly neglect we have been headed right into a warfare zone — however we have been about to get a actuality verify.
We had simply crossed into South Sudan when out of nowhere, two dozen armed males popped out of the tall grass and surrounded us at gunpoint.
“Cease! Who’re you and the place are you going,” a soldier referred to as out in Juba Arabic from his hideout not more than 20 yards away, pointing his AK47 at us. One other one subsequent to him had a rocket-propelled grenade propped on his shoulder, additionally unequivocally aiming it in our path.
Instinctively, we threw our fingers within the air and exchanged a baffled look. Had we by accident ran into authorities troopers? Or maybe we had come onto the “fallacious” rebels? Abucha’s group, referred to as the Sudan Folks’s Liberation Military In Opposition, is the most important however not the one armed group in Equatoria, an space rife with rival militia and bandits who exploit the safety vacuum left by warfare.
To our reduction, and solely after Abucha answered a collection of questions, this routine safety verify rapidly gave approach to a heat welcome. The platoon could be our escort for the subsequent 4 days as we trekked to their base and to Loa, Abucha’s hometown.
Maintaining with the rebels was no straightforward job. Given the nation’s pervasive lack of primary infrastructure, South Sudanese develop up strolling for dozens of miles simply to go about their day by day lives. For sedentary Westerners, holding the goal tempo of “two meters per second” (round 5 miles an hour) proved difficult amid 90-degree temperatures, all whereas filming and plowing our method by dense, itchy elephant grass.
The upside of the cumbersome terrain was that it saved us secure. Throughout our four-day journey, we didn’t cross a single highway, as an alternative strolling alongside a dizzying community of slender bush paths the rebels appeared to know just like the backs of their fingers. An undesirable encounter with authorities troops, who tended to stay to roads and transfer round in autos versus on foot, was extremely unlikely.
The closest we obtained to government-controlled space was a go to to Loa, positioned simply two kilometers away from a primary highway incessantly patrolled by authorities troopers. We couldn’t keep lengthy, however the hour we spent on the bottom supplied us a glimpse into what villages should seem like in lots of components of Equatoria: burned mud huts, looted colleges and clinics, fallow fields and – most strikingly – no civilians.
The warfare has had a devastating impression on South Sudanese communities just like the one in Loa, however a lot of it has remained out of the limelight of worldwide media. Our four-day enterprise into rebel-held South Sudan supplied us a uncommon alternative to report floor truths, and we’re grateful for that.
