Each other. Its a war with an ethnic dimension, its caused 2 Million People to leave their homes and tens of thousands have been killed as fighting continues across the country. Were heading to malakal, a town thats changed hands more than six times since fighting began in december 2013. Despite millions in International Aid and government coffers once flush with oil money almost no roads have been built in south sudan. Most commercial airlines stopped flying when the war started so were traveling with soldiers on United Nations flights. Theres a lot of armed guards across this airport. Its a un base in malakal. There was an attack here a few months ago. Several un workers were kidnapped. So now theres heavy security everywhere. Even the un now seems to operate in fear of the government it helped build. We were told Government Forces pushed the opposition a few miles down river just days before we arrived, but things were still tense. This was a town of a hundred and fiftythousand people. It now feels like a ghost town. Weve come to south sudan to find out how a country born of so much promise, has turned into a such a nightmare and also to ask were there warning signs that this could happen . This is of a child . When the fighting first broke out between Government Forces and rebels, thousands of people ran here, to the malakal teaching hospital, thinking theyd be safe. But then the rebel forces, loyal to the former Vice President riek machar entered the gates. How many people were killed here . 56 people were killed inside the hospital . They killed patients in the beds . Daniel ayokodit dedicated the last 33 years of his life to this hospital. He says the guilt of leaving that day still haunts him. When he was finally able to return, he told us the ward was full of dogs, gone wild from days of eating human flesh. You used to work in this place those who didnt escape across the nile that night, fled to the un base a few miles from the center of malakal. Today, a year later, their town lies empty and this has become home. Rachel mayik taught Elementary School before the war. Her husband was one of the patients at the malakal teaching hospital. They start killing people just randomly. And just on the side of the street, you see bodies of the people just thrown like that. Nobody to bury, nobody even to take because everybody has ran for his own life. By the time she returned to his side, she found him shot in his hospital bed, surrounded by other dead patients. Its this image, she says, that keeps her awake at night. I still sometime, when they come to my mind, i get disturbed. If these people came and they were looking for the soldiers, nobody could talk. But the ordinary people, the civilians, the elderly, even those who are crazy who were on the streets of malakal, all of them got killed. You feel, bad, really, and you feel if something could just take you out of here. Initial reports estimate at least 50,000 have been killed since fighting broke out in december of 2013, but rachel said the number is much higher. If in my own family alone i have more than 10, from the side of my husband, from my family, what of the other families . And people are still here because they are scared . Yeah, because there is no peace yet and security in malakal. Not yet. So youve got nearly 20,000 people here. Because its the only safe place. Ya, ya. People were still arriving, sometimes fleeing violence in towns so remote they can only be reached by boat. Nybol anok was brought in after rebel militias attacked her family just days ago. Her head was cut by machetes and she was left for dead. Her daughter nyobol told us there were more survivors from her village making their way down the nile we went to see if we could find them. Were going to a village of awarjawok, just upstream from malakal. Theres a group of people who have fled the fighting and just got here, so were going to see whats going on. Why did you come here . Assalamu alaykum. This is a 20 Year Old Girl called achol who just fled from attar. She said there is a lot of fighting there and there is a lot of killing by opposition forces. And she just got here by boat yesterday. Theres hundreds of people here just living out in the open. Theyve got their bags of belongings, little bits of food. This is what parts of south sudan look like today. Under every tree people huddled scared, tired in shock from what theyve just fled. Two aid doctors arrived to assess the levels of malnutrition and tend to the living. But theres no formal tally of the dead. So, many people died . Before she left her home, akol said she watched as her young son was killed. At least that, she said, was certain. Sunday night. 140 World Leaders will take the podium. Get the full story. There is real disunity in the security council. About issues that impact your world. Infectious diseases are a major threat to health. The week ahead. Sunday 8 30 eastern. Only on Al Jazeera America. Part of Al Jazeera Americas special month long evironmental focus fragile planet the new Al Jazeera America primetime. Get the real news youve been looking for. You know, everybody in this country can hear them. At 7 a thorough wrap up of the days events here are todays top stories. Things did turn violent. God does not discriminate and at 8, John Seigenthaler digs deeper into the stories of the day. This is a complicated situation. The justice department. And at 9, get a global perspective on the news. Sending their government a message. Organizing themselves. People say their finally fed up. Weeknights on Al Jazeera America primetime while south sudans president salva kiir and his former Deputy Riek Machar wage war, the story of the countrys birth, and in many ways the roots of the crisis could be said to have started here in the United States. It goes all the way back to the 1990s, when sudan was locked in a bloody civil war between north and south. We called ourselves the council. It became clear that perhaps the country in the world that was suffering the most where the United States could maybe make the biggest difference was sudan. For most of us, it was not just a professional issue, it was a personal issue. Eric reeves is an english professor at smith college, not far from boston. John prendergast was at the state department, but is best known for traveling to wartorn parts of sudan with george clooney. Ted dagne spent two decades at the Congressional Research service mostly writing reports on sudan. And this is brian desilva. This is the emperor. Thats you . Thats me. And this is roger winter, whose nickname is the spear carrier. The men bonded over their devotion to a new rebel army in the south fighting the islamist government of sudan. Most of the time we met at otellos restaurant on connecticut ave. Roger always ordered soupa de peche, and ted always had the filet. We figured out what needed to be done. We figured out whose butt to kick. We felt that if we could build up champions in congress, that that would increase the odds of the United States becoming more deeply engaged and involved. I was asked to join the House Foreign Affairs committee, the subcommittee on africa that gave me a lot of access and influence. We told those in congress who would listen to us what kind of resolutions they needed to be writing, what kind of legislation they needed to be passing. The council had one enemy and one hero. The enemy was khartoum, seat of the sudanese government. What did you want people to know about khartoum . I wanted people to know that this regime was evil. Ive thought a lot about the meaning of the word evil. I wanted to get people to understand that if there is evil in this world, it resides in khartoum. They used their aircraft to bomb, to terrorize people. They used their army, basically, to destroy whatever is in their way. If khartoum was the enemy the councils hero was rebel leader john garang. Garang had been graduate student in iowa, but he returned home in the 1980s to found the sudan Peoples Liberation army, or spla to fight the government of sudan. This is a calculated cold blooded genocide that is going on. And this government claims to be the government of the sudan it isnt its a government of killers it should be condemned. Sanctions should be made against this government, it should be isolated. He was not only militarily brilliant. He was also politically astute he understood the international community. And he was charismatic, if that word has any meaning. You could see the passion in john garang, about equality, independence, democracy. Those who are struggling to defend themselves must be assisted. The spla was fighting for regime change in khartoum. And with the help of the council, the spla found a friend in the United States. Susan rice then assistant secretary of state for African Affairs had started coming to the meetings at otellos too, and would play a key role. We knew that what was happening was ethnically targeted civilian destruction in order to destroy the civilian base of support for the rebels. We were able to convince a number of key members of congress that this is a struggle that needs to be supported, and this is an atrocity that must be stopped. We were in touch every day strategizing, coordinating our efforts to ensure that the end game of a just peace was realized. There was a love affair between many of the leading us advocates and john garang they adored him. And you think they were mistaken . John garang was extremely personally impressive and charming. Now we all know im sure youve interviewed impressive and charming dictators around the world. Alex de waal has spent his career studying sudan. He said on the ground, many saw a different man. He was completely ruthless, he was utterly centralized, he was completely intolerant of dissent. In demonizing khartoum, one of the sideeffects of that was to promote the spla as heros and as angels. They were neither of those things. The human rights record of the spla throughout the entire war has at no time been any better than the human rights record of the sudan government. Whatever the truth about that record, there is no doubt that garangs rebel army grew stronger with the backing of its us friends. At the same time, another movement was also gaining power in washington. This is a passage in the bible from isaiah 18 thats talking about sudan. Whoa to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of cush. Which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats, over the water. Go swift messengers to a people tall and smooth skinned. Evangelical christians were finding new influence, and south sudan became their rallying cry. These were innocent people trying to live their lives and bombs were falling on them. Stories of northern muslims Holding Southern christians as slaves became a critical turning point for american support for the south sudanese. There are poor people in many parts of the world. There are wars in many parts of the world but it was the fact that people were enslaved, especially women and children that was so shocking to many people. It motivated me. Well, were going now to meet with a trader and slaves. We understand there are 320 slaves that have recently come back with one trader. Well go to meet with him. Eibner and others made dozens of trips to sudan to negotiate with alleged slave traders. The campaign was wildly successful but also controversial. Thats 6 million. While there were certainly an element of reality in what they were doing many in the south including spla commanders, quickly exploited this as a money spinner. So they rather gullible foreign missionaries would come in with large amounts of money and these commanders would simply round up local kids and coach them to say, you are former slaves arent you . But the campaign sparked outrage among americans and paved the way for more direct us involvement. By the late 1990s, washington had imposed comprehensive sanctions on sudan and vacated their embassy in khartoum. Instead of the real complexities of sudan in which good and bad and not to be found in simply on one side or the other was reduced to a very, very simplified script. And that sort of simplified moral script makes a very bad policy. In south sudan today, the extent of the crisis thats unfolding reaches everywhere. Thousands of children like nyaleil have been orphaned by the crisis over the past 15 months. Nyaleil lives with her grandmother now and helps take care of two younger brothers. What do you remember of the war what happened . How did you know the war had started . Its estimated half a million kids like nyaleil have been forced from their studies because of the war. Your life has really changed. Whats the biggest change for you . The base here in bentiu is literally on the frontline Government Troops hold one side, and opposition troops the other with un soldiers minding the boundaries. Its hard to see this as a longterm solution even gathering firewood carries huge risks for women, who say they are afraid of the soldiers outside the gates. The destruction you saw in malakal and bentiu and bor, you know. Worse is the disruption of the social fabric. The nuers cant speak to the dinkas. The nuers cant speak to the shilluks. This war has been explained by many outsiders as an ethnic conflict between different and opposing communities. But for many of those we met thats not whats happening. The first place, the two wars were wars of liberation, you can say people were fighting for their rights. They were fighting against repression and oppression. This one is a war over power. And it has no justification whatsoever. You know seeing the bodies is actually a thing that you cannot forget, seeing dead bodies. So those images, they just always remain in your eyes. Daniel deng is an aid worker. An ethnic dinka, he told us that he found it hard to believe the fighting began because of deep rooted tribal animosity. But it has now spiraled into something that will take a long time to heal. So these are things, maybe, only the government knows. So but for us civilians, sometime, i think its difficult for us to understand the reason why they are doing that. There is nobody who is not angry. Everybody is angry. When the conflict broke out it immediately took on an ethnic dimension. And it did so not because these ethnic groups hated each other or theyre intrinsically opposed to each other, but because the way in which the money had been shared out in the constituencies had been built by the members of the elite was ethnic. The dispute within the splm was over who would be at the top. There is no political agenda beyond power. For more faultlines check out on demand or visit aljazeera. Com faultlines. Being a musician, theres no demand. World renowned artist lang lang the moment youre on stage, its timeless american schools falling flat. There are no music class in public schools. And his plan to bring music back. Music makes people happier. Every sunday night. I lived that character. Go one on one with americas movers and shakers. We will be able to see change. Gripping. Inspiring. Entertaining. Talk to al jazeera. Only on Al Jazeera America. The dream of south sudan ended abruptly on a december evening in the capital city of juba, less than three years after it was born. There are two sides to the story. So where are we going sir . We are going to the site where the shooting started. Some accuse Major General mariel chanoung yol, the head of the president ial guard, for disarming a group of soldiers who belonged to the minority nuer community. This is where the problem started. How did it begin, what happened . It was on sunday, 15th. We were relaxing, everybody in his place, nobody was in active duty. At night, at about 10, 17 minutes, we heard shooting from within the barracks here. He told us the soldiers broke into the storehouse. They came while people were sleeping, they opened the stores, they armed themselves and that place it was a store of arms and ammunitions. They also came, they stood here, the major without gun, so he shot him here, and he run, he fall here. He fall here. This is what trigger the shooting. It was they who shoot these people, and it was they who started shooting, and the rest begin to respond on their action. The Major General believes it was an attempted coup by soldiers loyal to riek machar, the former Vice President , who is also nuer. He blames these rebel soldiers for starting the entire war. He betrayed the whole country. Because we just separated from the north. What was in our mind is development. Ok. To catch up with the rest of the world. But he denied us that chance. Meanwhile machar says the story of a coup is a setup. He blames president kiir for crushing dissent and consolidating power. But what is known for certain the fighting quickly moved out of the barracks. By the next evening, in an apparent backlash against the rebel soldiers, the streets of the capital lay littered with hundreds of massacred bodies of nuer citizens. Human rights watch, other reports have said, you know, members of your battalion, members of other battalions here, were responsible for a lot of killings after december 15. I completely disagree with those who say that it is the president ial guard who do that. Because that day, everybody was carrying a gun. So who do you think did those killings . Well, of course, everybody who have a gun. There are forces from different unit, not the army, because there are other people also who are not army, who are carrying guns. Just armed civilians . Armed civilians and also organized forces. The political rift between the leadership immediately exploited ethnic divisions. President salva kiir is from the Dinka Community and former Vice President riek machar, is a nuer. Betim madol says dinka forces loyal to the president went door to door, asking questions in their native language to test peoples ethnicity. What they do, they just talk to you, using the dinka language. You dont respond they just take a pistol, tuff. I feel l