The road from Mayend!t to Pany!jar goes through no mans land and seems to be the reaching the ends of the earth. We reach the village late morning and proceed to do what we had to do. We had decided to attempt to return to Rumb%k that afternoon, estimating approximately a 4 hour drive. Having completed our tasks, we get back in the rented land cruiser for the drive back.
After about one and a half hours after leaving Pany!jar, we were driving north along the Panyijar road and were approaching an easterly bend in the road. The rental car we have is a white three door landcruiser with a second row of seats facing forward; the driver, Chief, came with the car, in the back seat is one of our site engineers and I am in the front left (steering wheel is on the right hand side (wrong side). For being a rental vehicle, this cruiser is in decent condition.
As we are approaching an easterly curve in the road, it is hard to see what is beyond the bend due to the tall grass growing in the ditch. The grass is tall and brown, elephant grass? Parts along the road are burnt, particularly to the left hand side of the road, but both ditches have thick grass, standing tall in the hot Sudanese afternoon sun. Suddenly we see two warriors, each with an AK-47 standing in the left ditch, both watching us and, the driver having slowed down, were motioning (waving) for us to drive past. It is rare to se people along this roadway, other than the village about mid way. The only other people in this area are these youth or cattle raiders.
As we move on toward the bend in the road, I see movement on the right hand side of the road; several heads of other warriors are seen in the grass, they are staring across the road, across our path of travel, to the left ditch and vast land beyond. We round the curve in the road and at this vantage point, the road straightens out for as far as the eye can see; a red marrum road riddled with holes and bordered by tall brown grass. In the ditch to the right, more and more warriors, about 15-20, are creeping out of the ditch or walking along the ditch, some are men wearing green uniform, others have blue uniforms on, but most are warriors, all are holding machine guns.
Several of the youth, those standing furthest from the ditch, as if they were on lookout, are motioning us to stop or slow down, others are motioning us to move on (waving at us in a manner that would suggest, 'get the hell out of the way'). Something like this happens so fast, without warning, without anticipation (other than stories from other's who have encountered 'situations' in Sudan). For some odd reason, I feel no fear or nervousness, but instictive reaction kicks in without fail.
We (the engineer and myself) are instructing the driver (and trying to keep him clam), telling him to slow down, but keep moving, never stop unless you absolutely have to or are forced to. It is quickly obvious in this situation, that they are not interested in us, but that we happened to drive into a fight or ambush. If they wanted to stop us, it would have been obvious, but the fact that their focus was on the other side of the road probably was the reason fear was eased.
Two warriors jumped out of the tall grass, directly in front of us, the vehicle comes to a stop. The warrior closest to the cruiser is standing about 20 feet, aiming his gun across the road towards the left ditch and vast grassland (perpendicular to us). About 10 feet beyond him, another warrior is crouched on one knee taking aim in the same direction. A single shot is fired by the warrior standing directly in front of us; a pop bursts through the tense situation, a light white smoke follows the shot from the end of the barrel, the recoil. Taking a quick glance to see what he is firing at, I notice several people (I assume warriors from the other tribe) are running away from the road. They are in plain sight due to the burnt grass but are running in a sporadic zigzag fashion. There were shots fired behind the cruiser, but with everything happening so fast, you become engaged in what is directly in front of you and everything else is a blur. The image of the shot fired, etched in memory.
My focus is immediately back on the warriors standing in front of us with an AK47s. After he fired his one shot, he takes a few steps backwards, opening space in the road for the vehicle. The one on his knee also backs off the road, we both tell Chief to gunned it, the vehicle lurches forward. He races forward, the fastest he had driven all trip, and the road is not in the best condition and I begin to fear he is going to lose control and we'd end up in the ditch, how ironic. So I calm him down. We both try to convince him that the fighting is behind us, and there will be no more...he didn't believe us...and rightly so.
Above picture taken as we drive away from the site - pointing the direction the shots were fired.
Several kilometers later, we passed a commercial truck broken down in the middle of the road, it appeared to be the same one that was in the ditch near the junction earlier in the day. We edge by on the eroding shoulder and continue on, stopping at the Mad*r checkpoint to talk with a military guard. He had got wind of something going down in the area today. The engineer talked to him about what we had encountered, then we drove on, now heading south towards Map#r and then Rumb#k.
Several kilometers after the checkpoint, there is a group of three SPLA soldiers walking near thick vegetation off to the left of the road and further down the road (100-200 meters) a pickup truck is stopped in the middle of the road, the back overflowing with warriors. Some are already walking our direction, with AKs slung over their shoulders. The soldiers motion for us to stop and we stop. The engineer is talking to one of them as the warriors crowd the window also talking to the engineer. It turns out that they were going to join the fighting and I suspect they were the other side. The engineer said we came from Maynd!t and didn't talk about what we had encountered.
We hand out our remaining bottled water, which increases the aggression of the youth who want more. They are thirsty, hungry, aggressive...not interested in tunring out your lights, just want food and water to support their quest for raiding more cattle. Seeing the bottles of water, more youth jump out of the pickup truck and start running towards us. We tell the driver to start moving as we are out of water and they are asking for more…he hesitates, but slowly starts to move and once there is no one directly in front of the vehicle, it's pedal to the metal. We pass the pickup truck and cruise on, but the road is a single lane, with tall grass on either side.
The road surface is nearly dried black cotton soil; slick in places with dried clumps of clay that cause for a rough ride and reduced speed. Along this stretch we pass 10-15 more warriors and some men in green uniform, walking in twos or threes, the groups staggered with about 100 meters between them. All are walking towards Map#r, away from the fighting.
(cows herded home to make shift cattle camps for the night)
We pass another checkpoint and after a quick stop in Map#r are en route to Rumb#k. The road has had time to dry out since our trip the otherday and we are able to make good time. Arriving in town, exhaustion sets in as one exciting day concludes.
After about one and a half hours after leaving Pany!jar, we were driving north along the Panyijar road and were approaching an easterly bend in the road. The rental car we have is a white three door landcruiser with a second row of seats facing forward; the driver, Chief, came with the car, in the back seat is one of our site engineers and I am in the front left (steering wheel is on the right hand side (wrong side). For being a rental vehicle, this cruiser is in decent condition.
As we are approaching an easterly curve in the road, it is hard to see what is beyond the bend due to the tall grass growing in the ditch. The grass is tall and brown, elephant grass? Parts along the road are burnt, particularly to the left hand side of the road, but both ditches have thick grass, standing tall in the hot Sudanese afternoon sun. Suddenly we see two warriors, each with an AK-47 standing in the left ditch, both watching us and, the driver having slowed down, were motioning (waving) for us to drive past. It is rare to se people along this roadway, other than the village about mid way. The only other people in this area are these youth or cattle raiders.
As we move on toward the bend in the road, I see movement on the right hand side of the road; several heads of other warriors are seen in the grass, they are staring across the road, across our path of travel, to the left ditch and vast land beyond. We round the curve in the road and at this vantage point, the road straightens out for as far as the eye can see; a red marrum road riddled with holes and bordered by tall brown grass. In the ditch to the right, more and more warriors, about 15-20, are creeping out of the ditch or walking along the ditch, some are men wearing green uniform, others have blue uniforms on, but most are warriors, all are holding machine guns.
Several of the youth, those standing furthest from the ditch, as if they were on lookout, are motioning us to stop or slow down, others are motioning us to move on (waving at us in a manner that would suggest, 'get the hell out of the way'). Something like this happens so fast, without warning, without anticipation (other than stories from other's who have encountered 'situations' in Sudan). For some odd reason, I feel no fear or nervousness, but instictive reaction kicks in without fail.
We (the engineer and myself) are instructing the driver (and trying to keep him clam), telling him to slow down, but keep moving, never stop unless you absolutely have to or are forced to. It is quickly obvious in this situation, that they are not interested in us, but that we happened to drive into a fight or ambush. If they wanted to stop us, it would have been obvious, but the fact that their focus was on the other side of the road probably was the reason fear was eased.
Two warriors jumped out of the tall grass, directly in front of us, the vehicle comes to a stop. The warrior closest to the cruiser is standing about 20 feet, aiming his gun across the road towards the left ditch and vast grassland (perpendicular to us). About 10 feet beyond him, another warrior is crouched on one knee taking aim in the same direction. A single shot is fired by the warrior standing directly in front of us; a pop bursts through the tense situation, a light white smoke follows the shot from the end of the barrel, the recoil. Taking a quick glance to see what he is firing at, I notice several people (I assume warriors from the other tribe) are running away from the road. They are in plain sight due to the burnt grass but are running in a sporadic zigzag fashion. There were shots fired behind the cruiser, but with everything happening so fast, you become engaged in what is directly in front of you and everything else is a blur. The image of the shot fired, etched in memory.
My focus is immediately back on the warriors standing in front of us with an AK47s. After he fired his one shot, he takes a few steps backwards, opening space in the road for the vehicle. The one on his knee also backs off the road, we both tell Chief to gunned it, the vehicle lurches forward. He races forward, the fastest he had driven all trip, and the road is not in the best condition and I begin to fear he is going to lose control and we'd end up in the ditch, how ironic. So I calm him down. We both try to convince him that the fighting is behind us, and there will be no more...he didn't believe us...and rightly so.
Above picture taken as we drive away from the site - pointing the direction the shots were fired.
Several kilometers later, we passed a commercial truck broken down in the middle of the road, it appeared to be the same one that was in the ditch near the junction earlier in the day. We edge by on the eroding shoulder and continue on, stopping at the Mad*r checkpoint to talk with a military guard. He had got wind of something going down in the area today. The engineer talked to him about what we had encountered, then we drove on, now heading south towards Map#r and then Rumb#k.
Several kilometers after the checkpoint, there is a group of three SPLA soldiers walking near thick vegetation off to the left of the road and further down the road (100-200 meters) a pickup truck is stopped in the middle of the road, the back overflowing with warriors. Some are already walking our direction, with AKs slung over their shoulders. The soldiers motion for us to stop and we stop. The engineer is talking to one of them as the warriors crowd the window also talking to the engineer. It turns out that they were going to join the fighting and I suspect they were the other side. The engineer said we came from Maynd!t and didn't talk about what we had encountered.
We hand out our remaining bottled water, which increases the aggression of the youth who want more. They are thirsty, hungry, aggressive...not interested in tunring out your lights, just want food and water to support their quest for raiding more cattle. Seeing the bottles of water, more youth jump out of the pickup truck and start running towards us. We tell the driver to start moving as we are out of water and they are asking for more…he hesitates, but slowly starts to move and once there is no one directly in front of the vehicle, it's pedal to the metal. We pass the pickup truck and cruise on, but the road is a single lane, with tall grass on either side.
The road surface is nearly dried black cotton soil; slick in places with dried clumps of clay that cause for a rough ride and reduced speed. Along this stretch we pass 10-15 more warriors and some men in green uniform, walking in twos or threes, the groups staggered with about 100 meters between them. All are walking towards Map#r, away from the fighting.
(cows herded home to make shift cattle camps for the night)
We pass another checkpoint and after a quick stop in Map#r are en route to Rumb#k. The road has had time to dry out since our trip the otherday and we are able to make good time. Arriving in town, exhaustion sets in as one exciting day concludes.
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