After all this, if they survive, deserters are released back into military service, typically in a more punitive role. If conscripts are apprehended at the border, it is equally likely they will be mowed down under the shoot-to-kill policy.

Luwam herself only narrowly survived the army's bullets when she fled the country alone in 2010. As the daughter of a writer and activist, she and her family were obvious targets for the authorities. When her father travelled to Norway for a conference, he seized the opportunity to apply for political asylum, soon after bringing her sister and mother and paying USD $4,000 to a smuggler for Luwam's journey.

"I knew it was a matter of life and death but I was confident as we paid so much money the route would be smooth," Luwam says. "It wasn't. We were shot at as we crossed the border and had to hide under a tree until it was over." She then made a 12-hour trek through the desert into Sudan. "I was so dehydrated I thought I would die. There were bodies and skeletons around us," she recounts. "When I got to Sudan I was even more scared because of human trafficking. Women were being tortured and raped."