Shattered Sudan | Drilling for Oil, Hoping for Peace, National Geographic: Ruweng County War Zone | Only Leaves and Swamp Water | South Sudan

Previous Image Next Image

Ruweng County War Zone | Only Leaves and Swamp Water | South Sudan

This war zone in South Sudan has been so hammered by the Northern Government that they have no supplies. They have eaten all the leaves out of the bottom areas of the trees – now they are in the tops of the trees to get the last leaves to eat – They only have this and some rancid swamp water to boil them.

From my journal:

Gabrielle shows up and says, “Is it ok if we go to where people are eating leaves?”  Ruweng County is an island surrounded by enemies—now that SPLA and SPDF are joining (SPLA is Dinka and SPDF is Nuer) there is one less threat.  But these are people that have nowhere to go. 

I call Melissa on the sat phone—I have about 200 flies on my body as I am talking to her—periodically I breathe in and swallow one or two.  I tell her “this is the sound byte for what I’m doing.  I’ve moved 3 tons of food and medical aid into an area the UN is afraid to fly into, where people are starving and only have leaves to eat.  My satellite phone hit her cell phone in Lexington KY where she is in an air-conditioned, cupola topped, chandeliered barn photographing a 72 million dollar racehorse—we couldn’t be in two different worlds.