One night, a #Uganda 's trader drove to Yei in the 1990s w/ SPLA commanders. The road suddenly became too bumpy: they were going over dead bodies frm combat engagement frm a day b4. He was scared but noted that the commanders were laughing, "these are just jellaba." #SouthSudan

On arriving in Yei, the soldiers began to shoot randomly. "What the hell." He thought this was the day he would die. He wondered if his UPDF friends in high positions didn't lay a death trap for him. To his relief, he learned that the soldiers were celebrating the fall of Rumbek.

The SPLA commanders' unfortunate comment, "these are just jellaba," speaks of how little human lives were regarded. A trauma that the commanders carried with them after independence.

These SPLA's sweeping victories liberated Yei and extended to many areas in Bahr El Ghazal region were due to the US support delivered through #Uganda, #Eritrea, #Ethiopia.