(RENK COUNTY) – Six children who spent three months alone after being separated from their mother during fighting in Sudan have been reunited with her in South Sudan, aid workers confirmed.
The children, aged from toddler to teenager, were found at the Joda border crossing after walking for days from their home. Their mother, Aluel, had been taken away during the violence and the family lost all contact. The eldest son, Peter, aged 15, led his five younger siblings out of their neighbourhood as insecurity spread and food ran out.
A person who knew the family saw the children on the road and paid for them to board a lorry heading towards the South Sudan border. Before reaching the crossing point, the Red Cross registered the group on the Sudan side. Once inside South Sudan, staff from the International Organisation for Migration referred them to Save the Children for family tracing and reunification.
The children arrived at Joda with no belongings. Save the Children provided blankets, buckets, bedsheets, clothes, shoes, sleeping mats, mosquito nets and dignity kits. Food supplies including rice, maize meal, oil, sugar and salt were also given. The children were placed with trained foster parents and started attending child friendly spaces where they received mental health support.
For weeks, the mother did not know if her children were alive. After she was released, Aluel crossed into South Sudan only because she was told to leave. She believed her children were still in Sudan. At Joda, a Red Cross caseworker told her that many children had been sent to Save the Children and her family might be among them.
Save the Children staff took Aluel to the police where identification was confirmed. When the children saw their mother, all six ran to embrace her. Aluel said she fainted and woke to find her children around her.
The reunification was funded by the Humanitarian Fund. The older girl in the family received extra dignity kits and attended sessions for young girls facing the particular challenges of displacement. The six children took part in sports, art and play activities designed to help them recover from the months of fear and loss.
The family is now staying in Renk and waiting for transport back to their home area.