Walking The Streets Of South Sudan (Worlds Most Dangerous Country)

Okay, this is very strange I've been speaking to a guy who lives in South Sudan and he says I should come visit him Which I have mixed opinions on and let me explain why so South Sudan is located here in Africa It is the fourth most dangerous country in the world with a constant civil war going on kidnapping and gang violence Is very common landmines and unexploded weapons are a threat The government is extremely corrupt and economically the country is a disaster. It is the poorest country in the world So as i'm sure you can imagine tourism is virtually non-existent here. It's estimated that only a couple hundred visit each year South sudan travel advice the fcdo advised against all traveled south sudan due to the risk of armed violence And criminality and to throw another cherry on top filming's illegal in south sudan I like even just filming on your phone. You can go to jail call me an idiot But I really want to go now to get there a lot of work was needed I first applied for a visa online who needed proof of a covid vaccine a yellow fever vaccine You needed to know someone in the country and just so much but eventually i've just Got a visa for south sudan We're actually going the visa required. I booked tickets. It's time to go Off we go I first got a plane from england to ethiopia and from there there was a connecting flight to juba. This is the capital city of south sudan Thank you As I onboarded the plane I could definitely sense I was in a world that I was not used to I made my way through the airport past vaccine checks and then eventually through border control But before I can make it out the airport, we've been taken into some room Because they saw all our camera equipment As I previously said filming here is illegal, but a few weeks prior I applied for journalist passes which costed $2,000 so they got approved saying that though the guys at airport security were being really hard to convince Eventually though after about an hour of questioning Are we good to film Film outside. Okay, we made it out the airport. All right, that was a that's a bit of faff But yeah, we finally made it out. Welcome to south sudan. Thank you, my friend. Welcome. This is mr bmg This is the guy who I mentioned at the start who convinced me to come here He's one of the only youtubers in south sudan and we got speaking online There was no way I would have made it into the country without this guy. Yeah This is us Is that is that a bullet? Yeah, no way Really? Yeah, when did that happen? I was driving him from here to the tribes. Yeah. Yeah, then we hit some goats And then they shot happened. Yeah. Oh my god Not the most promising start Come on It's a very aggressive people. Yeah, they don't like filming Okay, we made it to like the center it's crazy out here people don't like these cameras Well, some people getting aggressive to us because of the cameras It's not on you, don't worry and a lot of people just staring us out as a whole walking around the place I felt a lot safer than I thought First impression a lot better than I expected. I feel quite safe to be honest. Yeah, but you're safe You're safe apart from the odd person. Yeah, most people are pretty friendly This is a local cuisine here in south sudan, is it is it good or bad? It's good good. Yeah I give my honest opinion Oh my god Yeah, the taste is nice, yeah the texture is like snot which kind of puts me off That was a lie. The food was not nice. But aside from the food so far south sudan had beaten my expectations Now after the meal we continued exploring the atmosphere. However started to feel different This is the most dangerous place in south sudan, yeah Around this area we were getting looks but they were not friendly looks A big crowd started to form around us. All right, it's getting quite heated now So to explain what happened next this guy here in purple he got very angry about the camera We were circled by all of them at this point and he started shoving jack my cameraman. Mr Bmg managed to de-escalate the situation. We got out of there and headed back to the car. However on the journey back a new problem occurred Let me explain what's going on as I mentioned earlier I spent two thousand dollars on journalist passes This is issued by the south sudan government. So I was legally allowed to film So as we were driving I got this video just of the scenery this police officer saw that and pulled us over As you can tell she doesn't care about the documents To leave us alone she demanded a bribe So she she wants 50 dollars why what what have we done what have we done why are you doing this? I can show her the video. We didn't get any of them on video You first get the money Okay, you just give me the money with you let me let's just go ------- hell bro, so just uh for some context I was filming the street not the police officer, but the police officer saw me film Yeah, so she pulled us over and demanded a bribe. So if we didn't pay what would they do then? Uh, if we didn't pay They are going to take the camera the lady who just took the money. Is she just going to pocket that money? Yeah, you showed she pocket the money for herself for herself We're off to go see one of mr. BMG's mates. He's going to show us where he lives The place is very very rundown It's around here where a lot of the gangs are then yeah I was definitely very nervous at this point in the trip I mean you hear a lot of stories about tourists getting kidnapped by gangs and just the atmosphere of the place It was not like the city center He just shouted **** you He's saying black color is real black color is real black color is real. Wow. My color is not real My color is not real Yeah Hello Nice to meet you. I'm joe. What's your name? My name is kenny. Kenny is a friend of mr BMG and he kindly agreed to show us around his home Uh, this is a rental house. Yeah, so i'm renting these two rooms these two rooms How much is rent a month? How much per month? Uh per month. Yeah, the rent is 20 20 a month Okay, we'll have to have a look. Yeah, no problem. Yeah Thank you, you're welcome This is my room. This is my That's the baby. Yeah What's your name? Her name is master. She's beautiful Kenny shares this room with his wife and his daughter. He also shares a kitchen with other people that live in that area This is cabbage cabbage. Yeah, you know cabbage. I know cabbage. I know cabbage. I enjoy very much Yeah, well the place doesn't seem like luxury to you for south sudan standards. This is a good home How is life living in juba? Yeah, actually in juba life is not all that easy because you see I cannot get work actually easy now I'm, i'm just doing a mobile phone repair so that my family will survive You don't mind me asking how much how much money do you make a month in a month? I can make like uh, like 60 60 dollar 60 dollar as I mentioned before south sudan is the poorest country in the world On on on average how much would you say you earn a month from work 15 000 and how much is that in in dollars? Three dollars a month like uh Ten thousand in a month the civil war has caused prices to skyrocket jobs are scarce and these guys are struggling to make it through Life here can be even more tough than that just down the road was this little camp Three two one Hi Lower class but lower class in the poorest country in the world. This is the harsh reality. This is where you live. Yeah Yeah, can we have a look? How many how many people stay here Um, maybe like 17 17 in this one room. Yeah When it rains which is very common here, but what do you do? So this is this is the food here that you eat Walking around this place was tough seeing all of this and just realizing how much you take life for granted I mean the people here were the nicest people i've ever met. They had constant smiles on their faces Bye Okay, so it's 9 p.m right now, I don't know how we've done this but a member of a gang the uh, the jj gang Yes, jj a member of the jj gang has agreed to meet up with us and do an interview As I said earlier gang violence is a big problem in south sudan In fact all throughout today i've spoken to people whose lives have been affected by gangs Do you have experienced any of the gangs here? Yo You good? Nice to meet you the gang member who agreed to speak with us was in this building behind me I was waiting for about 10 minutes and out of nowhere Okay You come out or I go in Hello nice to meet you nice to meet you This guy is a member of the jj gang. What is your name? Did you have to join a gang because you were poor or did you join a gang at a choice because I was four and It's friendship involved. It's fair. They're all your friends. Yeah Yeah, we do get some cash from there lowering people by the roadside taking some people property like phones and do you feel? Any guilt doing that? No, I didn't feel shy. I can't be fit. I can't feel shy I have injured many people you have injured many people. Yeah, what like taking their money you injure them because In taking the cash you have to use force the way that benny just showed off about all of this It was pretty scary. A lot of people however have to join gangs purely to survive