---
title: "Fled without her parents"
description: "\"I think about my parents all the time,\" says Flora (10)."
url: "https://www.nrc.no/news/2016/des/fled-without-her-parents"
language: "en"
published: "2016-12-13T15:15:31Z"
modified: "2016-12-13T15:28:30Z"
---

Together with her brother and neighbour, Flora (10) ran from the war in South Sudan to the neighbouring country of Uganda. She does not know where her parents are. Photo: Ingrid Prestetun/NRC

# Fled without her parents

Published 13. Dec 2016

[South Sudan](https://www.nrc.no/themes?categoryId=103) [Uganda](https://www.nrc.no/themes?categoryId=114) [Children](https://www.nrc.no/themes?categoryId=140) [War and conflict](https://www.nrc.no/themes?categoryId=308)

This article was first published more than 9 years ago

"I think about my parents all the time," says Flora (10).

She became separated from her parents when she fled the war in her home country, South Sudan.

"I miss them," she says, when we meet her in a settlement for refugees in Yoyo, Uganda. She arrived in the settlement the day before, after six weeks fleeing from her home country.

Together with her brother Joseph (13) and her neighbour Neima Arive (22), she has travelled from her home in Mugu in South Sudan to the district of Yumbe, northern Uganda, to find safety.

### Afraid of dying

On the way to Uganda, Flora saw dead bodies by the side of the roads she travelled. She saw people get shot and butchered. She was afraid for her life, all the time.

"I was afraid because I saw how they killed people," she says.

Flora finally arrived in Yoyo, where the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has made sure that the people who live there have access to clean water and toilets.

Since the violence again spread in South Sudan in the summer of 2016, over 300,000 South Sudanese have been forced to flee across the border into Uganda. More than 1.2 million people in total have fled from South Sudan to its neighbouring countries since the war broke out in 2013.

!["I think about my parents all the time. I miss them," says Flora. She became separated from her parents when she fled from the war in her home country, South Sudan. Photo: Ingrid Prestetun/NRC ](https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/z_artistgalla/case/flora/test_img_6343.jpg)

### Heard gunshots

"It all started while I was on my way home from school and suddenly heard gunshots," Flora says. "I ran home, but my parents weren't there."

Flora and her brother went to their neighbour.

"After a while, we decided to go with our neighbour to Uganda," she says.

Flora doesn't know where her parents are.

"I don't know where they've gone, but I miss them. My parents loved me and took care of me. They gave me all I ever wanted," she says.

![Flora with Ismael, who works for The Norwegian Refugee Council. NRC ensures access to clean water and proper toilets in the refugee settlement Yoyo. Photo: Ingrid Prestetun/NRC ](https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/z_artistgalla/case/flora/test_img_6351.jpg)

### Talked about the war

Flora says that her parents often talked about the war.

"The last thing my father said to me was that I shouldn't go anywhere, that I had to stick to the roads and always stay home," she says.

Flora says that she will go back if there is peace in South Sudan.

"I want to go to school," she says. When she grows up, she wants to be a nurse.

At home, she would go to school and play with her friends. Now, she doesn't know whether her friends are still alive, and she wonders where her parents are.

"If my parents were here, I would say to them that I love them and that I miss all the nice things they did for me," says Flora.