Rubkona, South Sudan – These days, soldiers are the only people loitering around the market in this once-bustling oil town. They loaf about in plastic chairs, wander bored or drunk and lean against the skeletons of abandoned beds and buildings. Others ply the goods that now absent shopkeepers used to trade, although these wares are looted from former residents.
Machine-gun-mounted pick-up trucks pull up and spit out more soldiers. The Rubkona market near Bentiu, capital of South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity State, is not just a place for grown men. Children wear the uniforms of the national army, the SPLA – and it isn’t just dress-up.
A boy with bloodshot eyes – one who looks like he has seen too much – has upgraded from playing soldier to becoming the armed bodyguard of a commander. He asks for a cigarette, but refuses the one proffered, because it won’t get him high. “No, not a cigarette,” he says with disdain. “I’m a smoker.”…
South Africa Today Africa – East Africa South Sudan News
