* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The remoteness of Cuaca’s new home makes it a hard place to raise her three children. There are no roads, markets, hospitals or schools. Two of the four wells in the village are broken, while the population that depends on this water has doubled.
After violence broke out in their hometown of Bor, Cuaca and her daughters – four-year-old Mawiek, two-year-old Nyawech and baby Nyadieng – travelled on foot for 10 days to reach Pathai, in Jonglei state, with few belongings other than the clothes on their backs. During the journey, baby Nyawech was tucked into a Moses basket positioned skillfully on her mother’s head. Each night, the family slept under the stars with others who had run for their lives.
“I fled because I am afraid of guns and afraid to be shot and killed,” says Cuaca, an elegant woman of 22 years who is waiting in line to register with UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), who have arrived here by helicopter with life-saving supplies and services, the first humanitarian aid in nine months.
Pathai is in the grip of a hunger crisis affecting more than 2 million people in South Sudan. At first, local residents shared with the newcomers what little food they had stockpiled, but supplies quickly ran out. The health of children from the displaced population as well as from the host community quickly deteriorated, putting thousands of lives at risk.
So how have they survived for so long with nothing?
