A scary day in Rumbek








(these photos were taken in the Ministry of Education 24 hours after the events)


I must say I really didn’t expect I would experience anything particularly exciting – let alone frightening – in these few (4) days left before my departure to Europe. This morning I was supposed to meet with the Director General of the Ministry of Education for the State of Lakes. I have just sat down with him when all of a sudden his body guards break in the room together with a woman who is shouting something in local (dinka) language. From the reaction of the Director and from the cries of the people in the hallway I realize that something is about to happen. I see people running hectically all over the place and I see the Director General and the Minister running through a backdoor into a courtyard where a government car with armed people is awaiting them. The woman who earlier was shouting in the corridor is now next to the car and waving at me until I understand she is asking me to get on the car. I am about to enter the car when somebody from inside shuts the door and the car runs away passing completely through the bamboo fence. I look at the woman to ask her what should I do and where should I go and I realize she’s panicking even more than me and runs away. I am left alone in a place I don’t know with people running all over the place as to run away from something. As I start running away from the building of the Ministry I realize what is happening around me. A crowd of angry students is throwing stones against the building of the Ministry of Education and trying (successfully) to break in the building and get hold of the staff. I see the students throwing stones and immediately after policemen and soldiers shooting in the air to calm down the situation. I am panicking and I am stuck in the middle of the road not really knowing what should I do. The idea of calling the UN emergency number crosses my mind but half a second later a wave of panic shakes my stomach. I’ve just remembered that since this morning my Thuraya (satellite) phone has not been working – I was supposed to bring it to repair in the afternoon. This means that I am cut off from all communication with the rest of my team and with the UN people – thanks to several smart minds in our Government who never took seriously my repeated requests to get VHF radio handsets and not just satellite phones (just like all the other international agencies) which aren’t always reliable.


A guy is looking at me in this state of confusion, he tries to reassure me. He explains to me that students are upset at government who for the past six months has not been paying teachers their salary, causing frequent disruption of classes. Yet I am still freaking out as all the shooting has even increased so he offers to walk with me to a ‘safe place’. After a 10 minutes walking across the tukuls I find myself in a small house, perhaps 15 square meters filled with bunk beds. There must be at least 6, maybe 8. There is a group of people looking at me as I approach their house – for sure they must be wondering what is this terrified-looking ‘kawagia’ is looking for here. We start a conversation…they are quite friendly, some of them are laughing…for them I am definitely an unexpected guest. I am impressed by their attitude towards the demonstration and the shooting. They look somewhat ‘blasés’ and just wait for the mess to cool down to resume whatever they were doing before. But they also sound very concerned about this big issue of unpaid teachers and how it will affect the education for this first generation of students who are being raised in the (supposedly) peaceful New Sudan. It turns out that they are teachers from all over the state who happen to take part in a training course being held in Rumbek. Some of them come from Cueibet, the area where we are building our vocational school. I tell them about our crazy idea of creating from scratch a vocational training center in the middle of the bush where no UN agency or NGO is doing anything. They seem interested and ask me lots of questions. I realize the situation is becoming totally surrealistic – we are now chatting about the school project, somehow without even realizing it I take the camera out of my backpack and all of a sudden we are taking photos of this crazy moment, while all around us they keep shooting and it’s crazy how close it is. I even wonder whether one of those bullets may take a wrong trajectory and come towards us. I keep looking at my Thuraya phone, the screen is still blank…I can’t believe at this crazy coincidence – the first time in the 3 months I spent here when I really need my satellite phone to work it does not and it even shows me a blank screen.


One and a half hour later the shooting seems over and one of the guys tells me that if I want he can walk me to the main road and from there I can find some UN car who could give me a ride home (I forgot to mention that since I had to rush away from the Ministry building I could not reach Ata, my driver who was parked on the side of the building where students where coming in. Later I will find out that some students stoned the car, beated him and stole his shoes…). I decide to walk with this guy, we pass through some parts of town I had never been before…I notice lots of soldiers (normally there are already a lot, but this time is really A LOT). I see strange looks on people faces. While I am about to take the road that leads to my compound I see a guy whom I had been watching the Champions League final some weeks before. He recognizes me and offers to drive me home with his motorbike, which I accept gladly. Outside the gate of my compound I find my boss who is visibly stressed. He has got his satellite phone in his hands and as he sees me arriving he starts shouting (in Italian and in a very angry way) “WHY THE HELL YOU DIDN’T ANSWER YOUR PHONE – I WAS REALLY WORRIED ABOUT YOU”. I shout louder than him and tell him that my phone is out of order and to leave me alone. I explain him the whole story, we both are relieved although exhausted by this scary experience. It's around 5 pm, we both skipped lunch but none of us is feeling like touching any food.