Ben Wilhelmi

Aerials of a refugee camp, South Sudan

 

This refugee camp lies next to the airstrip of Rubkona to be precise, quite a bad place on a daily basis…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some portable drinking water tanks, very convenient even in the middle of floods.

 

 

Aerials, South Sudan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Sudan, aerials

 

The White Nile, not exactly a one body river. With my little experience in the country, it always seems comprised of smaller rivers, swamps and ponds…

 

 

A World Food Program center in Pibor.

 

A refugee camp entrance, Rubkona.

 

A flooded village. Notice the 2 colors for the flooding waters standing side by side, the villagers attempted a barrier which only seems to contain a different colored water.

 

 

 

A salt water body. It is quite contained on a square km or 2. Further the water looks normal again. No reference on the map.

A refugee camp in South Sudan

 

Rubkona, 2 months ago in the floods.

 

A Mi 26 on take off.

I tried to be smart and came very close but the  rotor wash was so strong I had a hard time to stand up. I found my hat 30m away. The other bystanders knew better and had kept their distance.

 

 

 

Some details of the main camp street.

 

At one entrance.

 

At a corner of the camp, I still have to figure out what this is.

Aerial pictures of a refugee camp, South Sudan

 

Flooded or not, it all depends on a few centimeters and luck.

 

All that green or sandy surface is water. Canoes would be convenient to visit the neighbors or go shopping.

 

The UN camp next door was better planned, there is hardly no sluggish water here, a better location makes all the difference.

 

In some camps, maybe all, the latrines have collapsed. Cholera cases have been reported. Even the camp in Juba is affected. Boots are to be sprayed when one leaves camp, for those who can…a lone tree is used for meetings, probably for men only.

 

Organization is to be seen here and there. A little garden, straw collected for roofing…small shops I heard. I’d like to visit one camp at some point. Well the word ‘visit’ has a weird feeling in this case.

 

The same picture has been cropped below to show that typical fresh water tank in blue. A foot bridge has been built to access it.

 

A main street in the green slime.

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.