Witness to South Sudan

Cape Town psychologist Gail Womersley spent December working with war survivors in the unrelenting heat of the South Sudanese desert.

In a single day, life changed.

The Monday was a normal day at the clinic. On the Tuesday, Womersley and nine other staff from Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders] were given minutes to pack their bags and were evacuated to the UN compound. The next day they were flown to the capital, Juba.

Womersley was part of an international medical team working in the town of Gumuruk, treating the nomadic Merle people for malaria and infectious diseases.

When fighting between rebels supporting ousted vice-president Riek Machar and supporters of the president, Salva Kiir, broke out in December, the medics fled.

South Sudan became independent in 2011,when it split from Sudan, ending Africa's longest running war. But political and ethnic conflict in the new state ended two years of peace.

"We did not expect this wave of violence," said Womersley.

Leaving without saying goodbye to the people she had helped was "traumatic".

In Gumuruk she had run workshops with children traumatised by war, using a doll to tell their stories.

The story went like this: One day there was fighting so the doll had to run and hide in the bushes for a few days. When the doll came back to the village, she learned her father had been killed. The doll felt sad and had nightmares.

Womersley would ask the children: "Does anyone know a story like that?" Every child raised a hand. They all had nightmares.

One day there was a distant gunshot. Womersley did not recognise the noise, but the children disappeared. "They ran and hid immediately."

Working with a translator, she taught young children breathing exercises to help them relax and how to sing a song in their head to help them keep calm when hiding from soldiers.

One day, a plane from the World Food Programme landed to hand out bags of sorghum. "I know it's clichéed but it was just like a movie," she said.

People queued for hours to receive food.

Womersley said much of being in Gumuruk was about "bearing witness" to what has happened to the people of South Sudan.

"People were grateful that the world knows about the conflict."