Six months without answers: A mother’s search for her abducted children

Nearly six months of uncertainty and unanswered questions have not weakened one mother’s hope of finding her two children, who were abducted along the Lirya Road.

When armed men stopped the vehicle, Viola Osman did the one thing she could. She tried to hold on to her son.

A gun was pressed against her head. Moments later, the attackers fled, taking Stella, four, and Alfred, two, with them.

“Among all the passengers in the vehicle, I was the only one who attempted to lift my head,” Osman says. “But I made sure not to look them in the eye.”

Nearly six months later, she has received no information about the whereabouts of her children.

The attack

The family was travelling from Juba to Kapoeta along the Lirya Road, part of the Juba-Torit route, when armed men attacked and looted their vehicle on May 19, 2026.

Osman says there were eight attackers. Five carried heavy weapons, while three had Kalashnikov rifles. They wore civilian clothes, and one spoke in a local language.

In the days following the abduction, authorities said search efforts were underway.

Tom Longisa Atim, a National Security officer in the Lirya sector, said search teams followed the suspected abductors’ trail through Khor Engliz, Jebel Guton and the forest between Lirya and Talakun, towards Pibor. However, the searches did not lead to the recovery of the children.

Jacob Werchum, Information Minister of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, said investigations had begun and that security forces and community leaders along the border had been instructed to monitor movements.

He said authorities were investigating whether suspected Murle armed youth were responsible. The allegations have not been established.

Werchum also called on the Eastern Equatoria government to strengthen security in the affected areas.

Osman says local officials collected documents and photographs of the children and shared them with humanitarian organisations.

By June 9, the family told Eye Radio they were losing hope. Osman said she had been informed that search teams had looked towards Pibor without success.

She mentioned Gumuruk and Kenet as possible locations where the children might be held, based on information circulating in the community.

She also complained that authorities were not keeping the family informed about the searches. She wanted regular updates and information from each location visited by the search teams so that the family could understand what had been done and where further efforts were needed.

She says much of her time is spent crying and praying.

“Many families have been devastated”

Osman says she is not alone in the search for missing children. She has listened to accounts from mothers in Kapoeta and Torit whose children were also taken.

“I have listened to numerous accounts of such kidnappings from mothers in Kapoeta and Torit, stories that have tested my own endurance,” she says.

She says many families have searched for their children without success, while some mothers have died during their efforts to find them.

The concerns come amid other reports of child abductions and trafficking investigations in South Sudan.

On October 17, 2026, the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) announced the arrest of eight suspects in connection with an alleged child trafficking network operating in Suk Darfur residential area in Mangateen, northeast of Juba.

The army said the investigation followed reports of 23 children who had gone missing over the previous three years.

According to the SSPDF, the suspects allegedly lured, kept and sold abducted children, with some taken to the Greater Pibor Administrative Area. The army also reported that one boy had been recovered and reunited with his parents, while eight other children had been traced.

The SSPDF said three other suspects remained at large and were allegedly in possession of seven abducted children.

The army’s announcement has raised further concerns about the safety of children and the need to investigate and address abductions and trafficking. However, authorities have not established whether Viola Osman’s two children are connected to the trafficking network described in the SSPDF statement.

A mother’s hope

Despite the long wait and lack of information, Osman says she has not lost faith that her children will be found.

“I remain confident that the government of South Sudan is capable of returning my children, as well as the children of many other mothers whose little ones have been taken,” she says.

Her appeal remains the same: authorities should intensify the search, provide regular updates to affected families and do everything possible to establish the whereabouts of missing children.

For nearly six months, Stella and Alfred’s mother has lived without knowing where her children are or whether she will see them again.

But she continues to hope that one day they will return home.