The non-governmental organization (NGO) Nonviolent Peaceforce says that it has lost contact with four colleagues who were working in Koch in Unity State. They were forced to flee attacks in the area together with other civilians from Koch.

According to the organization's director in South Sudan, Tiffany Easthom, the missing staff Mary, Rebecca, Michael and Duop have been serving as protection officers in Koch. She said they have been unaccounted for for several days.

“When the fighting returned to southern Unity... Mary, Rebecca, Michael and Duop, in regular contact with the Juba office, informed us that they had decided to join the rest of their community and families, to move out into the bush and away from the impending fighting,” said Easthom.

“They were able to keep in phone contact with us for a number of days, updating us on their wellbeing and the unfolding situation. Unfortunately, the battery on the phone they were using was running down and, as they had retreated into the swamp, there was no way to charge it.”

Protection Officer Jonathan Moore, a friend and colleague of Duop, said that he had spent many hours with Duop prior to the latest violence in Unity State. He said he was concerned about his friend, whom he praised as a peace-loving person who has worked hard to keep his family and his community safe.

“The people in his community call me 'brother of Duop'. I am proud to be called the brother of this man, who has lived a life that few can imagine,” said Moore.

He pointed out that Duop was forcefully recruited into the military at the age of 10 and had spent his youth without a family, “footing his way across East Africa, with a military force whose language he didn't speak, taking orders and being bullied because he was small.”

He later became a refugee and was eventually taken to the United States of America where he worked and studied criminal justice at a community college.

“He had seen so many atrocities in his life that he wanted to learn more about how to implement the law and bring peace to his country. Before Duop could finish school his mother fell sick. Despite the fact that he had been separated from her since the age of 10, he returned to Unity State, to live in an area of extreme poverty and hardship. A few years later, in late 2013, the crisis hit South Sudan.”

Moore noted that Duop's family including his mother, wife and children were already forced to flee once last year and their home was burnt down.

Duop was hired by Nonviolent Peaceforce in 2014. Among his duties was to help to organize workshops on community emergency readiness and planning.

The NGO worker noted, “The reports that we are hearing [from Unity State] indicate that civilian men, women and children are being chased into the bush and killed or raped on a large scale. It hurts so much to imagine him [Duop], running from swamp to swamp, forest to forest, trying to keep his small children and elderly mother safe.”

Moore also noted that the one of the other Nonviolent Peaceforce staff from Koch is pregnant and the other has a newborn baby.

“Our national staff members are humanitarian workers. They are people of peace. But first, they are civilians. They do not carry weapons. Nonviolent Peaceforce is deeply concerned about the lives of our national staff and the civilians that they have fled to the bush with. We strongly urge conflict parties to refrain from attacking civilians that are seeking safety and have nothing to do with the fighting.”

Courtesy photo: Duop walking in Unity State