![Tens of thousands of South Sudanese line up for food handouts on March 17. The fighting has left many in the country starving](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/south-sudan-suffers-from-starvation-and-murder.jpg?quality=85&crop=0px%2C35px%2C2560px%2C1708px&resize=550%2C367&strip)
The 13-year-old boy sits on a mat in a darkened hut not far from Leer Town in South Sudan, his skeletal knees pressed against his ears, and tells the story of what happened to him and more than 50 other men one day late last year. That morning—he wasn’t sure if it was Oct. 22 or 23—South Sudanese government soldiers rounded up the boy and 10 men as they grazed their cows.
This appears in the May 30, 2016 issue of TIME.