Kate Holt |

17 Dec 2016 11:55 GMT

South Sudan - Seven-year-old Nyajima still thinks about when the soldiers came to her village. The fighting had been getting closer each day.

 

"Many people who lived in our village were killed," she says. "The soldiers stole all the food and left us with nothing except our saucepans, so we took them and started to walk to the POC."  This was the Protection of Civilian Camp run by the UN peacekeeping force UNMISS. "It was a long walk and one night we slept outside on the way. This dress I am wearing is the only dress that I have."

 

Nyajima is just one of thousands of children to have been displaced by the on-going war in South Sudan: a recent report from UNICEF estimated the number at 900,000 since the conflict between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those who support the once vice-president, Riek Machar began in 2013.

 

She is one of the lucky ones - her family all survived and now live in a UN protected camp in Bentiu. "Once we lived in a house made of bamboo - now we live in a house of plastic sheeting," she says.

 

Children are the biggest victims of the conflict: 17, 000 of them are reported to have been recruited by armed forces and armed groups looking for child soldiers to fuel the conflict which has been going on since 2013; another 14,000 are registered as unaccompanied or missing; and more than 2,000 have been killed or maimed during this time.

 

"Before this conflict my life was very good," says Bol, an 11-year-old boy.

 

"Then government forces came to my village on an island in Leer County where I lived. They chased us into the water up to our chins and my younger brother was killed. I got separated from my parents and they still don't know where I am."

 

Bol himself only escaped thanks to the intervention of an older soldier. "They shot my brother. I was crying then one of them put a gun to my head but the older man asked them what they were doing killing small boys, so they let me go and stole my cows instead." 

A young girl stands in front of the temporary shelter where she now lives in the UN Protection of Civilian Camp (POC) Bentiu, in South Sudan. Almost 2,000 children have been killed or maimed in the past three years. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

Nyajima, who is seven years old and who is newly arrived, helps to feed her younger sister who is disabled. Their father was killed in fighting in Unity State between government soldiers and rebel factions and her mother, disabled younger sister and brother all fled to Bentiu. Nyambur is not able to go to school because she has to look after her sister. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A woman watches as a UN peacekeeping foot patrol marches past her as she washes clothes in a river. An estimated 900,000 children have been displaced since the conflict started. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A malaria sufferer sits on a bed waiting to have a drip put in at a health clinic in Malakal. The town was once a thriving economic centre and the second largest city in South Sudan. Fighting between government forces and opposition fighters has destroyed it and the majority of its population has fled. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

Thousands of people have fled Leer in recent weeks as fighting intensifies between rebel and government soldiers, heading to the Bentiu camp, which is protected by UN soldiers. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

People displaced by the fighting in Unity State go about their daily lives at the in the UN-protected camp in Bentiu. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A woman washes her baby outside their temporary home. Some 14,000 children are registered as unaccompanied or missing. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A young boy and his brother sit in their family's traditional hut in the town of Kuach in Unity State. UNICEF is assessing hygiene facilities in remote towns because there have been several confirmed cases of cholera in the region and renewed fighting is making humanitarian access difficult. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A woman sits with her baby under a mosquito net. This year alone UNICEF and partners have admitted 184,000 children with severe malnutrition for treatment. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

Young boys watch a football match and film it with their phone in the camp at Bentiu. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

Women attend a church service in the UN protected camp at Bentiu, which is now home to 105,000 people. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A young girl runs to school along a ridge in the Benitu camp. Nearly two million children are missing out of school. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A baby reaches out to touch children through a fence that divides the Malkal camp into different parts. The fence separates two ethnic groups. More than 33,000 people from the Nuer and Shiluk tribes are now living in the camp. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

A boy walks by a dirty stream. In 2016 Unicef reunited 4,500 children with their families. UNICEF is supporting children in the camp providing services ranging from education to nutrition, in partnership with other international organisations. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]

The UN-protected camp at Malakal, in South Sudan. [Kate Holt/UNICEF]