WESTERN EQUATORIA - “We are very tired of fleeing from place to place in fear of our lives,” says 34-year-old Suzan Daniel, a mother of six.

“Our children spend entire days loitering around without any access to education, we have no food, no healthcare to speak of,” she adds.

Suzan’s family is one of nearly 2,481 displaced households who are currently seeking refuge in Nagero, Western Equatoria, after escaping from the massive upsurge of conflict in the greater Tambura region.

 “We walked for six days to reach Nagero. I don’t know where my husband is till now,” reveals Suzan, narrating the story of how she and her family eventually reached safety in June last year. “Life is not easy. We don’t have proper shelter to sleep under,” she adds.

The protracted violence in Tambura has forced tens of thousands of people to shelter in either internally displaced persons sites or neighboring counties.

Displaced communities in Nagero are facing a dire humanitarian situation and their numbers are steadily increasing, according to the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission’s (RRC) report on the county.

“We first received several displaced persons in June 2021. They told us terrible stories of women giving birth on the roadside, elderly people dying on their way here. Earlier this year, an additional 420 households joined those who were already sheltering in our county,” says John Costa, the Deputy Coordinator for the RRC.

Residents of Nagero, however, have given the newcomers a warm welcome, sharing their limited food and resources widely.

“We meet our brothers and sisters from the conflict-affected areas of greater Tambura weekly to discuss the challenges they are facing, especially women, and we try our best to offer them some hope and healing from the immense trauma they have suffered,” states Tereza, a women’s representative from Nagero.

Young people are also rallying around each other.

“We have formed an association that works on small farming and brick-making projects which keeps us occupied and enables us to earn some money. We have included displaced youth in this body as well,” avers Charles Peter Mbudo, a local youth representative

A visiting delegation from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) applauded all the efforts made by community members to alleviate the challenges being faced by displaced women and young people.

“We will advocate for the strengthening of the Gender-Based Violence referral pathway, including deploying midwives,” stated Margret Modong, a Gender Affairs Officer with the UN Peacekeeping mission. “This will help to empower women, take care of their maternal health and reduce the impact of conflict among community members.

For her part, Leticia Mariano, an UNMISS Human Rights Officer, reiterated the mission’s ongoing commitment to durable peace and ensuring safe returns of displaced people to their original settlements.

“We will liaise with the humanitarian actors and see how they can come and help the situation on the ground while we keep working with authorities to restore law and order in greater Tambura,” she said.