美国国家公共电台 NPR 14-Year-Old Who Fled South Sudan: 'They're Killing Women, Children'

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

South Sudan is in the midst of a brutal¹ civil war. Thousands of people have died. Millions have been displaced. Most of the people fleeing to refugee camps in neighboring Uganda are women and children. Some of them spoke² with NPR's Eyder Peralta, and what they have to say may disturb some listeners. Note we're using only their first names in this five-minute story out of concern for their safety.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE³: The refugee camps in northern Uganda are vast. They're now home to more than 700,000 refugees, and they continue to grow and spread as thousands more South Sudanese head south into Uganda every day. The camps are a collection of small mud huts far away from each other, deep into the bush. I meet Angurese at her house about two hours away from the nearest paved road. She's 14, a slight girl holding her baby son.

ANGURESE: (Through interpreter) We ran away because the war has turned onto us civilians⁴. When the Dinkas comes, they either slaughter⁵ you with a knife, or they cut you with a machete. So we're now running away because we could not wait.

PERALTA: She says the violence in South Sudan got worse as the Dinkas and Nuers, the two biggest ethnic⁶ groups in the country, began fighting for power. Then the only midwife in town took off, and her mother saw no choice but to send a pregnant Angurese with her. They walked for four days from a town called Lainya to the border with Uganda.

South Sudan has been an ethnic battleground on and off for decades, but Fatuma, the midwife, says this conflict is different. She says she saw young pregnant women raped⁷ and the road in front of her house become a killing⁸ field.

FATUMA: (Through interpreter) They used not to kill women, but these days now they're killing women, children, elderly, even the pastors⁹, the bishops¹⁰. They don't spare us. So this is what I'm seeing does happen in South Sudan.

PERALTA: South Sudan became independent in 2011. But within two years, ethnic tensions erupted into civil war. Now human rights groups rank South Sudan as one of the worst places for children. They've documented fighters raping¹¹ girls and sexually mutilating boys. Both sides have abducted¹² thousands of children for use as soldiers.

Cecilia Tabu is a caseworker for Save the Children. She deals with traumatized kids every day, and a big part of her job has become finding foster families for children who flee South Sudan on their own.

CECILIA TABU: So we have the first unaccompanied minors¹⁴ - are these two.

PERALTA: She takes me to meet the family of Kani Jane. She came with two children of her own and then kept on accepting foster kids. Now she lives with 13 in a small mud hut that the older kids built. Cecilia points to one of the little ones, 6-year-old Santo, whose parents took whatever money they had saved and sent him off in search of peace.

So Santo came alone from Juba?

TABU: Yeah, they came alone from Juba with their neighbor. The father just sent him to come. So sometimes he doesn't talk, and at least now he's recovered.

PERALTA: Finally she introduces me to Ludiya. She was 17 last year when her mother gave her some money and told her to flee with four younger kids.

LUDIYA: There's no education, and the people are killing themselves, hanging themselves. That is a problem that we came from there to Uganda.

PERALTA: Their foster mom, Kani Jane, says it's hard to take care of 13 kids especially because she constantly worries about her own adult children still in South Sudan.

KANI JANE: (Speaking in Arabic).

PERALTA: But she's accepted these kids as family, she says, because she has no other choice but to deal with the cards she's been dealt. Cecilia, the caseworker, says all of this is hard. She says some of the kids still don't have shoes, and at school, they don't have educational materials. But here in Uganda, she says they have a chance.

TABU: I know how it is because I have a personal experience, and I grew up as an unaccompanied minor¹³.

PERALTA: Back in the '90s when she was 13 and war was raging between North and South Sudan, Cecilia's parents sent her off to Uganda on her own. She lived right here in this same camp. And it was hard, but she had peace, and she managed to reunite with her parents and go to college.

Cecilia walks me from the family's house to a big playground built by Save the Children.

(LAUGHTER)

PERALTA: Cecilia says when they first opened the playground, kids would fight along ethnic lines. But slowly they've helped them understand how to solve problems without violence.

(CROSSTALK)

PERALTA: So as we stand there, kids play tag through a cloud of dust. They slide, and they swing, and they chase a football. And suddenly the world here feels normal. Eyder Peralta, NPR News, at the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in northern Uganda.

(SOUNDBITE OF KAKI KING SONG, "SO MUCH FOR SO LITTLE")

1 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

6 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

7 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 pastors   

n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Do we show respect to our pastors, missionaries, Sunday school teachers? 我们有没有尊敬牧师、宣教士，以及主日学的老师？ 来自互联网
• Should pastors or elders be paid, or serve as a volunteer? 牧师或长老需要付给酬劳，还是志愿的事奉呢？ 来自互联网

10 bishops   

（基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象

参考例句：

• Each player has two bishops at the start of the game. 棋赛开始时，每名棋手有两只象。
• "Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like. “他劫富济贫，抢的都是郡长、主教、国王之类的富人。

11 raping   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的现在分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• In response, Charles VI sent a punitive expedition to Brittany, raping and killing the populace. 作为报复，查理六世派军讨伐布列塔尼，奸淫杀戮平民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The conquerors marched on, burning, killing, raping and plundering as they went. 征服者所到之处烧杀奸掠，无所不做。 来自互联网

12 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

13 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

14 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》