THONYOR, South Sudan (AP) – “I went only with my fear,” said Gatluok Chuol. “If the soldiers found me, they would have killed me.”
For several months last year, the 65-year-old South Sudanese farmer risked his life in order to feed his family.
In July, when fighting erupted between South Sudan’s government and opposition forces close to his village in the town of Leer, Chuol, his wife and their 10 children, fled to the swamps in search of refuge.
However, Chuol was unwilling to abandon his crops. He’d been cultivating sorghum and maize and without proper care his harvest would die and his family would starve.
Guided by the moon and shielded by darkness, Chuol and his wife crept back to their farm at 3 a.m. and secretly tended their crops. Almost nightly, the couple evaded soldiers to toil in the shadows, he said. They cut weeds until the sun rose when they were forced to disappear back into the bush.