http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-refugees-return-fight-peace-talks-drag-162425242.html;_ylt=AwrBJR_bri1ToiEA7gnQtDMD
S.Sudan
refugees return to fight as peace talks drag
By Jenny Vaughan 23 hours ago
Gambella (Ethiopia) (AFP) - Paul Kuon's escape from his war-torn nation was
the most brutal of journeys, with the South Sudanese rebel fighter forced
to dodge gunfire as he trekked with his wife and two young children.
But after his two month-long ordeal, passing scores of dead bodies and
spending days without food or water to reach the relative safety of an
Ethiopian refugee camp, Kuon is readying to return to fight.
"There is no choice... we will not give up, we will continue fighting,"
said Kuon, a member of one rebel force that is fighting against the
government.
"What was done by the government in Juba is not correct, they tried to kill
each individual, brothers and sisters were killed," he told AFP, standing
among hundreds of refugees under a cloud of buzzing flies, in a rapidly
growing camp just across the border in western Ethiopia's Gambella region.
Kuon is leaving his family behind in the camp to return to a bloody civil
war in the world's youngest nation, in which thousands have already been
killed.
Despite the brutal suffering the war has caused -- displacing nearly one
million people, many without sufficient food or medical care -- troops have
refused to lay down their arms, violating a ceasefire deal signed in
January.
Slow moving peace talks between the government and rebels failed to resume
as scheduled on Thursday in the comfort of a high-end hotel in the
Ethiopian capital, although mediators insisted they would restart soon.
View gallery
South Sudanese refugees walk towards Kule refugee camp near the Pagak
Border Entry point in the Gamb ...
So far they have made little, if any, progress.
"You cannot leave this fight because I've left my brothers there fighting,
they are fighting for our freedom," said Chuot Mach, a bony-chested rebel
soldier from a separate rebel force, flashing a toothless smile.
"I will go and fight until we get a solution."
- Refugee conditions worsening -
South Sudan's government has been at war with rebel groups since December
15, when a clash between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those
backing sacked vice-president Riek Machar descended into full-scale
fighting.
The conflict has taken on an ethnic dimension, with the Dinka people --
Kiir's tribe and the country's biggest -- largely allying with the
government against Nuer forces loosely tied to Machar.
View gallery
South Sudanese refugees wait for food in the Kule refugee camp near the
Pagak Border Entry point in ...
Aid agencies warn of a growing humanitarian crisis, with observers saying
the country faces possible famine if warring parties do not heed the
ceasefire.
Refugees desperate for food and medicine have poured into neighbouring
countries, including Ethiopia, where over 72,000 have arrived since
mid-December.
A new camp opened in late February is already full, and officials are
seeking to expand existing settlements or open new ones on the dusty and
heat-cracked earth.
Ethiopia could receive up to 300,000 refugees in total, UN refugee agency
chief in the country, Moses Okello said.
The UN estimates that $350 million (251 million euros) will be needed to
respond to the South Sudan refugee crisis by the end of the year.
But what is alarming is that "the condition in which (the refugees) are
arriving is getting progressively worse," Okello told AFP.
View gallery
A South Sudanese refugee feeds her baby near the Pagak Border Entry point
in the Gambella Region, Et ...
"Our fear is that the group that will come after this will be really in a
bad, bad way," he added.
Recruitment of child soldiers is a major concern, said Okello, noting there
are few young men in the camps.
"Our fear is that there could be people that are staying behind to fight,
possibly including children," he said.
Both sides have been accused of atrocities and war crimes, and this month
the African Union launched an inquiry into human rights abuses.
- Fighting for freedom? -
South Sudan was born less than three years ago, splitting from the rump of
Sudan after more than five decades of on-off civil war.
But the desire to fight on remains for many, with many using the same
rhetoric once used in the 1983-2005 civil war.
Nyatuach Chol left her three adult sons in the key oil-producing state of
Upper Nile region to fight in the war, while she walked with her daughter
and grandchildren for a month, surviving on leaves and little water until
they reached the camp.
"I support my children, because they are fighting for freedom," she said,
sitting under the shade of a UN tent in a tattered green floral dress.
She has not heard from them since she left three months ago, and does not
know if they are alive or dead. But she accepts their fate.
"I cannot worry, the one who dies, dies, while the one who survives will
come and get me," said Chol, emaciated and grey-haired.
"This is a cause for all of our people, not only my sons."
Received on Sat Mar 22 2014 - 11:47:44 EDT