Peter Ngong Yel,Sudan "I am Dinka and was abducted from Nyamlell by Arab cattle herders"

My name is Peter Ngong Yel. I am 34 years old and have three children. We just returned to Nyamlell [a town in Aweil North County in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State] from Beliel camp [for internally displaced persons, predominantly of the Dinka community, near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State].

I am Dinka and was abducted from Nyamlell by Arab cattle herders of the Rizzeigat community [from South Darfur] in 1984. For three years, I was looking after their cattle, sheep and other animals. Eventually, I ran away and came back to Nyamlell. I went to school in Nyamlell, but then the famine happened [in 1988-1989, claiming approximately 70,000 lives], and we fled to South Darfur.

In South Darfur, I stayed in Beliel camp and worked for the Nyala office of the Committee for the Eradication of Abduction of Women and Children. Armed men would come to Beliel at night and take our animals and other belongings, shooting anybody who resisted. A Janjawid [Arab militia] killed my niece when he tried to steal her goat. Although he was caught, he didn't even get arrested.

These incidents started two years ago, but they got worse recently, and now people want to go home. When we left Northern Bahr El Ghazal, there was war. Now there is peace, so it is good to be back.

Some people who fled from here still know their relatives - through their elders - but not the younger ones. Many don’t know where their relatives are, because they have fled as well and are no longer in the village.

Now we have nothing, no shelter and no food. We are still eating the food that we brought with us from Nyala, but we have food left for only five days.