AKOBO: Kool Gatyen Pajock was in a South Sudan hospital while a physiotherapist wrapped bandages around the 18-month-old’s legs under the watchful eye of his grandmother, Nyayual Chuol.
Government forces put a bullet in the baby’s leg and killed his parents, according to Chuol, who carried him to the hospital in Akobo, South Sudan’s northeastern region near Ethiopia, from their village 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the west.
They were among the 280,000 people who have been displaced in the past two months by a renewed conflict in Jonglei state between the government army, known as the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition.
“I have nothing in my hand now to take care of this baby,” Chuol said. “I’m worried about my four children who ran in different directions when the attack took place. I don’t know where they are now.”
The fighting further threatens a fragile peace reached in 2018 after a five-year civil war.
