War and crisis forced 32‑year‑old Achuei to send her 6 children out of Sudan alone. She could only afford 6 tickets on a crowded truck heading towards safety. Instead of leaving one child behind, she stayed.
A sacrifice that only a mother can make.
Months later, she finally reached the border town of Renk in South Sudan and found all her children alive.
But war forces people to make desperate choices. Achuei knows this only too well – for this is not the first time she has faced such a situation.
Today, the family is back in their home village of Nyongkuach in South Sudan – a place still marked by conflict, flooding and hunger. With support from a European Union funded project, they are beginning to rebuild their lives.
Fleeing war – again and again
Achuei first fled her village 11 years earlier. She was 7 months pregnant when fighting reached Nyongkuach in newly independent South Sudan.
Villagers grabbed what they could carry and escaped on foot into the bush. Some elderly people stayed behind. A few days later, they were killed and the village was burned to the ground.
The group walked for 2 weeks, moving one day and resting the next. Achuei’s body was swollen from pregnancy, but they could not slow down – soldiers could appear at any moment. When they finally crossed into Sudan, she felt her unborn child was safe. There was medical care and food distributions, and she allowed herself to hope.
She did not know she would spend the next decade in a refugee camp.
Raising a family in a refugee camp
As a South Sudanese refugee in Sudan, Achuei could not move freely or take a proper job. She gave birth to 6 children in the camp and struggled daily to find enough food.
One joy kept her going – her eldest son could go to school, something she never had. The day he moved up to second grade was one of her proudest moments.
She dreamed of returning home to South Sudan. But even after the civil war there formally ended in 2018, violence still flared. She decided it was too dangerous for her children.
Then a new, brutal war broke out in Sudan.
The camp became unsafe.
Once again, she had to decide how to protect her family.
Sending the children away to safety
By early 2025, the fighting was closing in and food was scarce. Achuei had just enough money for 6 tickets on a truck leaving Sudan – one for each child, none for herself.
The decision tore her apart, but she would not abandon one of them. She watched the truck disappear in a cloud of dust, waving as her children set off surrounded by strangers.
On her own in the camp, she lived in constant fear about her children.
Will they reach the border safely? Will they find food to eat? Will she ever see them again?
So she saved every small amount she could, determined to follow them.
A tear‑filled reunion in Renk
At last, Achuei reached the border town of Renk between Sudan and South Sudan. As she stepped off by the riverbank, she heard her eldest son shouting.
‘Mom! MOM! I never thought I’d see you again.’
He ran towards her, crying. The rest of the children were there too. They had been staying hungry but safe with relatives, waiting for her to arrive. For the first time in months, she could breathe.
They stayed in Renk for a month and then moved back to Nyongkuach, the village she had fled in 2013.
Coming home to a village in crisis
Nyongkuach had not been rebuilt for years after it was burned. During the civil war in South Sudan, different armed groups took turns controlling the area. Each time, civilians suffered again.
Now the village faces several crises at once:
- ongoing conflict and insecurity
- severe flooding linked to climate change, destroying crops and marooning villages
- cuts in humanitarian aid, leaving people without safe drinking water
With no clean water supply, families are forced to drink from the dirty river. Diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea spread quickly, especially among children.
More displaced people arrive every week, fleeing war in Sudan or violence and floods elsewhere in South Sudan. Everyone has to share already scarce food and water.
Achuei does not know how she will feed her 6 children in these conditions.
A lifeline through cash assistance
Soon after arriving in Nyongkuach, Achuei met staff from Nile Hope, a South Sudanese organisation working in the north of the country. With funding from the European Union, Nile Hope and the Danish Church Aid started a project to support the most vulnerable families through regular cash assistance.
Achuei’s family was selected. In autumn 2025, she received 3 payments of around €85 on a white plastic card that she could use in local shops.
This cash allowed her to buy:
- food for her children
- basic items the family urgently needed
It is not a luxury. But it is enough for a new start.
When the rainy season ends, she plans to plant a kitchen garden so she can grow food herself. If the harvest is good, she hopes to earn a little money and pay school fees for her children.
More than anything, Achuei longs for peace – an ordinary life where different ethnic groups live side by side, where no one has to flee soldiers or send their children away alone. She hopes she will never again have to be separated from her family or leave her home behind.
