After three years of fragile peace, renewed ethnic conflict and food shortages in South Sudan are conspiring to create a new humanitarian catastrophe. IRC's Peter Biro visits the town of Ganyliel where displaced families are now forced to survive on grass, roots, and water lilies.
Nyanen Ruot was at home preparing a meal last December when without warning she heard the deafening sound of heavy machine gun fire. Looking out of her small thatched hut, she saw people screaming and tripping over each other in panic trying to flee the crossfire.
“My neighbor was shot dead in front of my eyes,” she says.
Soldiers swept through the town of Bentiu, the capital of oil producing Unity State, setting huts on fire and forcing Ruot, 65, and her fellow surviving villagers to flee.