Commanders from the government military and opposition forces have launched a joint inquiry to identify the invisible arsonists mind-controlling their infantry.
BOR, South Sudan — The afternoon heat ripples off the hood of a bullet-pitted Land Cruiser, carrying the faint smell of diesel and the metallic tang of newly settled ash. Beside it, on a folding table bearing a single sweating bottle of Fanta Orange, commanders from the South Sudanese military and their opposition rivals have spread out a map to solve a profound, shared mystery: who exactly keeps tricking their heavily armed infantry battalions into meticulously torching the region's medical infrastructure.
The destruction across Jonglei state has been absolute and, according to the men whose troops currently hold the still-warm incendiary launchers, deeply perplexing. Over the past three weeks, dozens of villages have been leveled and mass displacement has swept the area, an outcome both the government’s South Sudan People’s Defence Forces and the opposition SPLA-IO agree is a tragic whodunnit of the highest order.
We are tracking a highly sophisticated, invisible third actor who somehow possesses the ability to mind-control our brigades into pouring state-issued gasoline onto maternity wards.
The logistical complexity of the destruction only deepens the enigma for the generals currently overseeing it. The systematic silencing of Jonglei’s hospitals required heavy artillery, coordinated troop movements, and hundreds of gallons of accelerant—resources available exclusively to the two armies currently standing in the ashes expressing their utter bewilderment.
As the sun sets over the smoldering remains of a local clinic, the commanders concluded their daily briefing by vowing to leave no stone unturned in their hunt for the real culprits, pausing only to authorize another mortar barrage on a neighboring village just in case the elusive arsonists were hiding inside.