Since violence erupted once again in South Sudan in December, the children of Sudan are in the middle of another dangerous conflict. The so-called Lost Boys of Sundan, orphaned during the original Sudanese civil war, wandered hundreds of miles to Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, and were eventually resettled across the world.
More than 200,000 people have already been displaced, and South Sudan is thought to be on the brink of another civil war. The violence that broke out Dec. 15 is a result of tensions between the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups. Here are 10 things you didn’t know about the Lost Boys Of Sudan.
Sources: LostBoysChicago.com, Wikipedia.org, NYTimes.com, UNICEF.org
Humanitarian workers in Kenya nicknamed the children who made it to the refugee camps The Lost Boys as an ode to Peter Pan. The majority of the children were without parents.
Young Sudanese boys are quite mobile after their initiation into manhood. Small groups often go out into the wilderness with their peers to look after cattle and other food sources. So it was not an entirely new experience for them to be in the wilderness with no parental supervision – though the circumstances were obviously far more dire.
The children who fled their homes in rural areas during the initial Sudanese Civil War feared being taken as soldiers in the conflict. Their villages were often attacked in the middle of the night, making them especially vulnerable. The boys initially headed to cities such as Juba and Khartoum to look for work. However, the cities quickly reached capacity and, when no work was to be found, many boys joined groups heading to refugee camps in Ethiopia.
While the majority of Sudan’s Lost Boys headed to refugee camps in Ethiopia, they were forced to return in May of 1991. Following the Communist overthrow of the Ethiopian government, the new regime forced Sudanese refugees out of the country at gunpoint. The children began the trek back to camps in Sudan through heavy rain and dangerously swollen rivers. When fighting erupted near the camps in late 1991 they had to move to Kenya.
When unlivable conditions in Kenyan refugee camps became public, many countries opened their borders to Sudanese refugees. Many of these were the original Lost Boys. Several planes heading to the U.S. were carrying Lost Boys on September 11, 2001, and were diverted to Canada for several days. Understandably, some refugees thought they were bringing the war with them.
Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, North and South Sudan agreed to allow the Lost Boys and other members of the Sudanese diaspora to return to their homeland. Many former refugees began to return to the region despite the fact that the violence had not yet ended.
Although many Lost Boys became citizens of other countries based on their refugee status, they were still permitted to vote in the decision to split from Sudan. In January 2011, 99.47 percent of South Sudanese citizens voted to become an independent nation.
Many South Sudanese refugees took the opportunity to reclaim their homeland and become a part of rebuilding the new South Sudan following the region’s independence in 2011. Sadly, the continuing violence made this a dangerous move. Many have been drawn back into the conflict.
By virtue of their painful experiences as refugees at an early age, the Lost Boys have a higher threshold for facing danger and violent conflict than most. As they attempt to reconnect with family in their homeland after so many years, many are unwilling to leave their homes again, despite the violence.
Since the civil war came to a head in 2011, thousands more have been forced to flee their homes in Sudan and South Sudan. The Lost Boys term has been used once more to refer to refugees, despite the fact that refugees include men, women, and children, not just orphaned boys. They have been forced to flee across the White Nile to escape the violence.