Rebel soldiers came to Alex Abui’s modest thatch-roofed home in South Sudan a few months ago, demanding that the quiet-spoken farmer join them in trying to topple their African nation’s government.
“If you accept, it will be fine, if you don’t, we will kill you,” Alex remembers the rebels telling him. “I was shot because I refused to go with them.”
He was hit by bullets four times – in each leg, his chest, and his back – when he tried to run.
The rebels left him for dead. But the 42-year-old father of five girls and three boys refused to die. His wife sought help, and South Sudanese government officials loaded the badly injured Alex onto a motorcycle and drove him several hours south to the Ugandan border.
Sympathetic Ugandans took him to a hospital, where he was reunited with his wife and eight children who’d also made their way out of South Sudan.
Now they live in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, with about 60,000 other people from South Sudan. Each refugee receives regular food rations, administered by Samaritan’s Purse, from the UN’s World Food Program. They also have modest homes, and small plots of land on which to grow vegetables to supplement their food rations.
Although Alex misses South Sudan, he is content for now to remain in the refugee settlement. So is his wife, 45-year-old Hellen Adiye.
“I don’t have to run into the bush with the kids for security (to escape attacking soldiers),’ Hellen said.
Please join with us in helping refugees like Alex, Hellen, and their children. Your prayers and financial support are urgently needed.
We are also helping in other refugee settlements in Uganda – distributing food, drilling wells, building communal and household latrines, and offering seeds and farming tools to help refugees grow food. While the war continues, about 2,000 more South Sudanese refugees are arriving in Uganda daily, so the need for us to assist in Jesus’ Name is as urgent as ever.
Samaritan’s Purse is responding to the crisis in East Africa caused by severe famine, drought, and conflict. We provide food, shelter, safe water, medical care, and other aid. Your gift will help us bring critical resources to the those affected in the name of Jesus Christ.