"But after consecutive years of drought, Oture's relationship with his native village of Lohobohobo a remote cluster of huts on the western side of South Sudan's Lopit mountains began to fray. Frustrated community leaders came demanding an explanation for his failures. As anger rose, Oture, in his early 50s, feared for his safety. He fled, taking refuge at the home of his brother's widow in another village, a four-hour walk away."
"Weeks later, in early October 2024, a group of young men from Lohobohobo arrived and made it clear Oture had no choice but to return with them. The following morning, Oture was brought to face the community in the village square, a dirt clearing encircled by a rough-hewn wooden fence. When elders arrived to question him, the ruling generation of fighting-aged men known as the Monyomiji intervened. They announced that a decision had already been made."
"When he reached its edge, Oture climbed down into the pit and was buried alive. The village square in Lohobohobo, where Solomon Oture was brought before being buried alive [Adlai Coleman/Al-Jazeera] In South Sudan, where the climate crisis is ravaging livelihoods, massive floods and scorching droughts have uprooted families and fuelled one of the world's worst hunger crises. Amid the mounting desperation, people want answers and, occasionally, someone to blame. In some farming villages, long dependent on seasonal rains, these tensions have put rainmakers at risk."
Solomon Oture, a rainmaker from Lohobohobo in South Sudan's Lopit mountains, faced community anger after consecutive drought years reduced rainfall. Frustrated leaders demanded explanations, and Oture fled temporarily but was captured weeks later and returned to the village. The village's Monyomiji announced a preordained decision, and Oture allowed himself to be led down the mountain and into a freshly dug pit, where he was buried alive. Massive floods and scorching droughts across South Sudan have uprooted families and deepened a severe hunger crisis, fueling desperation and occasional violent blame against traditional rainmakers.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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