JUBA, South Sudan — It’s been more than four years since United Nations staffer Francesca first set foot in South Sudan. Having arrived in a country ripe with opportunity and flooded with international investment, she came at a time when the world had high hopes for its newest nation.
“Life before the war is one of the reasons I stayed on this long,” Francesca said, adding that life felt “normal” to the British national.
Francesca, who wished to be identified only by her given name, is one of the few “pre-2013” aid workers left in the country. Before the war, she lived in a house with roommates, and had the freedom to come and go as she pleased.