Roads of Peace, Not Blood

It is deeply distressing to watch families continue to risk the lives of their loved ones on roads that have become synonymous with violence, ambushes, and fear.
What should be ordinary journeys have turned into perilous undertakings, where survival is uncertain and grief is often the outcome.
At the heart of this tragedy lies an uncomfortable truth we repeatedly avoid: the safety of our people is being recklessly compromised in an environment where the rule of law is weak or entirely absent.
Each trip along these routes is no longer just a passage home; it is a calculated risk, a confrontation with unresolved conflict, and, too often, a fatal encounter with history repeating itself.
For the people of across South Sudan, this reality is neither new nor theoretical. The roads connecting communities are not neutral spaces of movement; they are charged with memory, marked by past bloodshed, and shaped by longstanding grievances that remain unaddressed.
Yet despite this painful history, families continue to travel these routes out of necessity, desperation, or hope.
The danger is well known, but alternatives are few, and survival often demands movement. The consequences, however, are devastating.
Loss is not measured in statistics but in broken households, orphaned children, and communities forced to mourn again and again.
At some point, common sense must prevail. When a route is widely known to be dangerous, when it lies at the center of unresolved conflict and armed hostility, we must pause and ask a difficult but necessary question: is any journey worth the price of a human life?
Travel should never amount to a death sentence. Our people deserve safe passage, dignity, and the assurance that reaching home does not require gambling with their lives.