Ben Wilhelmi

various pictures, South Sudan

 

 

 

A patriotic lady: flagged toe nails. I have never noticed but I bet this could be spotted in America too.

 

 

Female police officer. She was the only on I have spotted in 9 months.

 

The modern South Sudanese army…

 

My protection after landing.

 

At a bus stand in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere…that term pretty much describes most of South Sudan. And this thanks to irresponsible and corrupt politicians.

Random pictures, South Sudan

 

A special welcome in Pibor, a bit surprising when I landed…

 

 

 

A man on water duty.

 

A patriotic woman.

 

 

A female soldier, I haven’t seen many.

 

Tanzania, portraits in B/W

 

 

 

 

 

Random pictures in South Sudan

 

The classic scam about witchcraft to recover lost love, job promotion, penis enlargement…

 

Indian contingent in Pibor. They are always fully geared up with weapons and bulletproof jackets to welcome aircraft and their supplies….

 

A mechanic working on a Mi 26 main rotor. One could build a nice little house in such a helicopter, like on a Boeing 727.

 

Surprise a Russian Mi 8 poorly parked on Yirol airstrip.

 

 

Juba, a Mi 8 hovering, faffing around before finally landing between parked Mi 8’s. Why not use the runway and taxi as usual…?

 

 

Swampy area alongside the Nile.

 

Tiny rapids on the Nile, Ugandan border.

 

Bush fire, Congolese border towards Yambio.

South Sudan, random pictures

 

 

A Mi 8 over the Nile, slow beasts, they are so easy to overtake.

 

A Belgian project in Bor. Some spelling mistakes on top of “Delgique”…Belgique would have looked nicer.

 

This kid and friends wait for passengers and carry their luggage.

 

A wheelbarrow will do too.

 

 

 

 

Middle of nowhere, Pibor. And nice manners have arrived here I have no clue how. Pilots? UN peacekeepers?

 

I always feel safer whenever I see a weapon to honor my arrival.

 

Juba, an Antonov 26 taking off after the rain.

A refugee camp, aerials, South Sudan

 

A refugee camp in Rubkona in the north west, IDP status, that is Internally Displaced People. 1,3 million in the country. 450,000 more refugees have left to neighboring countries. Mind blowing numbers…

I’ve shown this kind of picture before: I’m still puzzled by the fact that only this camp is badly flooded around.

 

Yesterday I overflew and took some details. Notice the little dykes around the tents.

 

A part of the main street…below a cropping of the same picture:

Those brown slabs are clean water reservoirs. What an irony that people have to get into dirty water to access the clean one. Towards the right side, these are kids playing in the water under the scorching sun.

 

More water tanks, different models.

 

I’m not too sure what this is. A watchtower monitored by peacekeepers? There are a few on the perimeter…

 

Toilets… wadding skills required. One other camp is reported with 1 latrine for 158 persons. The crisis level says 1 for 50… it doesn’t look too bad here, no queues to be seen.

A flight in South Sudan

 

The place is called Rubkona. First we had been told to avoid overflying the village as some skirmishes had been spotted earlier in the day. Supposedly the rebels were in town and the governmental troops at the airfield.

On final, one can’t help but notice that refugee camp, which was quite flooded in that sandy colored water. Bad karma or what? These people are being terrorised, robbed, looted, abused by both camps and when finally they find some kind of shelter, the elements come in force.

Yes I can say the troops are around the airstrip but I’d say the rebels and them have passed a truce or something not to fight in the hottest moments of the day because the soldiers were really really relaxed. I even spotted one in his underwear doing his laundry! I wish I could have brought a picture because I have a feeling that a guy in boxers, Ray Bans, a red beret and the AK 47 against the basin won’t happen everyday.

 

Seeing these torched cars I initially thought that indeed there had been some fighting. But in this case an airplane crashed on landing and hit these jeeps.

Here is a bit of the aircraft mangled with the car wrecks.

 

The remains of the HS 748.

 

The UN peacekeepers, from Mongolia, took the job more seriously. All geared up and armed.

This Blue dude never dropped his binoculars in the 10 min I was snapping around.

 

 

A UN soldier keeps watch around the Mi 8.

 

Here is another picture of the flooded refugee camp. After take off it hit me that the whole area is dead flat like a pan. And out of all the places the engineers or city planners could have chosen, they selected the lowest part so that with the first rains, this hollow point would get hit. And apparently nothing else around, notice how the perimeter is clearly holding the water. I’d like to hear the story behind this, hear what those planners have to say for their defense.