Being able to grow food in Walgak – a town in northeast South Sudan, an area once riddled with conflict – is a dream come true for Sarah. A farming-for-peace initiative, backed by the World Food Programme (WFP), has replaced the crackle of gunfire with the thud of hoes as farmers till the soil. This is surely the safest that Sarah and her community have felt in a long time. Situated in Jonglei, the country’s most isolated and underdeveloped region, Walgak was the scene of political violence and armed conflict for years and because of that, a magnet for jobless young people. Now, thanks to the peace initiative, a 3km dyke has been built to protect homes from flooding – turning the area into something of an Eden insofar as the merciless climate crisis will allow. “Everyone in my village farms together now, young and old, men and women,”...
