Thirty thousand men, women and children from Sudan’s Blue Nile State sought an end to nine months of terror and trauma when they crossed the border into neighboring South Sudan in June 2012, becoming refugees for the first time in their lives. They joined a population of 70,000 who preceded them in fleeing Khartoum’s deadly military campaign to crush the northern remnant of the Southern liberation movement. The journey, made perilous by the dearth of water and food as well as the risk of ambush and attack, required weeks of walking after months of internal displacement.
