Bernardo, his wife and their three children ran for the only place they could think of that might be safe -- an oil field a few hours' walk from the family's home in Melut, a town in South Sudan's Upper Nile state. The family met with Bernardo's father there, and they slept out on the tarmac at the oil field's airport that night, hoping to get a space on the South Sudanese military planes taking civilians out of the battle zone to the capital city of Juba.
A recent surge in fighting in South Sudan has sent more than 100,000 people fleeing from their homes in the past two months, according to a report this week from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR. The report warned that the number of displaced persons is rising fast.
More than 2 million people have already been displaced by a war that has largely escaped international attention. South Sudan's government forces are battling with opposition fighters to gain control of as much territory as possible before the approaching rainy season renders large parts of the country inaccessible for several months.
The core of the fighting is taking place in the northern Unity and Upper Nile states, regions with barely functional roads and patchy telecommunication infrastructure. Little information makes its way out of these battle zones.
Several international aid organizations have pulled out of the areas where fighting escalated in recent weeks. The UNHCR warned on Tuesday that around 650,000 people have been cut off from humanitarian aid.