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Lost Boy of Sudan Survives War, Crocodiles,
Finds Welcoming Home at Central Missouri
Orphaned by a brutal civil
war when he was only nine years
old, Daniel Lazaro has overcome
extraordinary strife on his way
to finding a new home in the
United States. From the slaughter
of people in his small Sudanese
village to a life-threatening
1,000-mile trek, barefoot and
often alone though jungle and
desert, he is one
of thousands of
young men known
worldwide as
the “Lost Boys of
Sudan.”
Lazaro came to
Central Missouri
State University
from Kansas City
this fall to begin
studying toward
a degree in either
computer science
or aviation technology. He hopes
to return eventually to southern
Sudan as an American citizen to
provide a helping hand for people
he says continue to face political
unrest, severe poverty and disease.
“There is peace, but it is not
like people think it is,” he said,
still struggling with his English
speaking skills. “There are no
jobs. They need clean water and
medical clinics.”
This is despite a historic
peace treaty signed earlier this
year between the Sudanese
government and a rebel army
in the south. The treaty ended a
long-standing war that began in
1983, pitting the country’s Arab
and Muslim northern government
largely against Christians and
black tribes in the south.
Lazaro’s exodus from Sudan
came in 1987 as northern soldiers
began to move out of the larger
communities and into places
like Duk, a small rural village
where he and his family lived.
The soldiers shot and killed men
and older boys and took away the
young girls and women. Lazaro
fled for his life.
His extraordinary journey
across Africa took him on foot to
a refugee camp in Ethiopia, back
to Sudan, then to the Kakuma
refugee camp in Kenya. His
From Warrensburg to
Washington, D.C., is
1,045 miles — that’s
roughly the distance
Daniel Lazaro walked
as a nine-year-old
boy, barefoot, with no
water or food, through
jungles and deserts.
formal education began there
in 1992 while living amongst
some 65,000 refugees from seven
African nations.
He’s one of an estimated
11,000 young men who became
known as the “lost boys” because
of the way they had to fend for
themselves without assistance
from their parents or elders, many
of whom were killed.
Lazaro shares his story
of determination
and how he banded
together with other
lost boys in an essay
he wrote as a TRIO
program student in
CMSU’s Department of
Academic Enrichment.
In that work
he recalls his first
encounter with five
other young orphans
he saw hiding in trees after he
spent the first three weeks alone
traveling at night to avoid gunfire
and wild animals. All of the boys
were on the way to Ethiopia.
“Even though I did not
know their names, we started
introducing ourselves to each
other as brothers. We joined
and walked together for one
month, taking care of each
other until two guys had passed
away.” One boy died of a snake
bite, another of hunger. Those
who remained forged ahead
in search of a safe haven.
“We did not have any food,
water, or even clothes and shoes,”
he adds. “We just ate the leaves of
trees or mud and drank urine to
keep us alive. We started finding
the dead bodies of other boys for
many reasons: scorpion stings,
poisonous trees, and no water,
not even wet mud in the area. The
place was desert with few trees.”
Although he found refuge in
Ethiopia after three months, he
and other Sudanese lost boys were
forced to flee this country three
years later when civil war broke
out. Chased out by rebel troops,
thousands of young men died at
the River Gilo on their way back
to Sudan. Many drowned in the
(continued to page 7)
After surviving a harrowing trek across hundreds of miles of desert, an estimated 11,000
“Lost Boys” found the protection of the United Nations. They crossed the Sudan border into
Kenya and were taken to a Kakuma refugee camp, where they spent the next nine years
waiting for an end to their country’s civil war. — Photo by B. Press/UNHCR
One of the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” Daniel Lazaro has conquered life’s toughest hurdles enroute
to becoming a student at CMSU this fall.
page 6 central today
winter 2005