The Lost Boys of South Sudan

The Lost Boys of Sudan was the name given to a group of over 40,000 boys of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups. These boys were displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1987–2005) in which about 2 million were killed and millions of others were severely affected.^[1] The name "Lost Boys of Sudan" was colloquially used by aid workers in the refugee camps where the boys resided in Africa. Many believe the term was initially derived from the children's story of Peter Pan. ^[2] The term was revived, as children fled the post-independence violence of South Sudan with Sudan during 2011–13.^[3][4]

The boys embarked on treacherous journeys to refugee camps in Ethiopia where they were sheltered for a few years. Soon, official resettlement programs begin throughout the US. The Lost Boys were offered new lives in major US cities.

Roots of the Conflict[edit]

The Sudanese conflict, which incited the journey of the Lost Boys, stemmed from divisions among the Northerners and Southerners. Following Sudan's independence from Britain in 1956, these divisions became contentious. The northern region of the country was primarily Muslim, which contrasted ideologically with the Christian and animist religions that were more prevalent in the south.^[5] Religion played a crucial role in this conflict because British Christian missionaries were welcomed in the South, yet the North wanted a homogenous nation of Muslims. ^[6] In the Northerner's minds, the South was a legitimate place of conversation because the Christian religion promotes secularization. For each side, religion constituted identity, making the conflict extremely personal for all involved. Further, the Northern population was primarily Arabic-speakers, while the South comprised an English speaking population. The new Sudanese government was dominated by Northerners who sought to Arabize the South, which had previously associated more with their African ethnicity rather than Arab.

Effects on children

Many children were orphaned or separated from their families because of the systematic attacks in the southern part of the country. Some children were able to avoid capture or death because they were away from their villages tending cattle at the cattle camps (grazing land located near bodies of water where cattle were taken and tended largely by the village children during the dry season) and were able to flee and hide in the dense African bush. Some of the unaccompanied male minors were conscripted by the Southern rebel forces and used as soldiers in the rebel army, while others were handed over to the government by their own families to ensure protection, for food, and under a false impression the child would be attending school.^[7] Children were highly marginalized during this period. Resultantly, they began to conglomerate and organize themselves in an effort to flee the country and the war.

Flight of the Lost Boys

Motivated by the loss of their parents and their need to find food and safety from the conflict, an estimated 20,000 boys and girls from rural southern Sudan fled to bordering Ethiopia and Kenya.^[8] Much of the travel took place by foot in large groups with the boys traveling in single file lines.^[9] The journey from South Sudan to the nearest refugee camp could be up to thousands of miles. Travel ranged from a span of weeks to two or more years. Often, the children traveled with no possessions besides the clothes on their backs.^[10] The Boys often depended on the charity of villages they passed for food, necessities, and treatment of the sick. However, most of their travel was in isolated regions with very little infrastructure. Groups of Boys were often organized and led by the oldest boy in the group, who could be a young adult or sometimes as young as ten or twelve years old.

The Lost Boys on this migration were on average extremely malnourished, as food was sourced through donations from villages encountered along the way, hunting, and theft.^[8] They were also vulnerable to heat exhaustion, pneumonia, malaria, and other diseases for which they had little means of prevention or treatment.^[8] Additionally, attacks by lions, snakes and other wild animals were not uncommon. It is estimated that over half of the young migrants died along their journey due to starvation, dehydration, disease, attacks by wild animals and enemy soldiers.^[11] Conditions were made even more dangerous by the SPLA soldiers, who would attack the boys or forcibly recruit them as child soldiers. The SPLA estimated that 1,200 boys were recruited from groups of displaced children, although they deny forcing any of them into conflict.^[10] Experts say the Lost Boys are the most badly war-traumatized children ever examined.^[1][8]

The journey of the Lost Boys was filled with suffering and unknowns as the boys rarely knew the direction they were headed.^[12]