Anything from cooking oil to combatants is welcome.

President Salva Kiir likes to portray his country as an underdog, recently saying that South Sudan was “like a child who has two teeth, up and down,” whose “teeth will grow” and “bite that man” referring to his former — and possibly future nemesis — Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Both sides, it seems, are gearing up for a major conflict. In Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, the government mandated that part of civil servants’ salaries be diverted toward the military — as has the South. And just like the South, Khartoum is trying to spur a grass-roots war effort, asking Sudanese citizens to donate food, goods and other valuables for the defense of the nation.

South Sudan’s border areas, like Mayom Wel, bore the brunt of Sudan’s two north-south civil wars. The first began in the 1950s, and the second ended only when an American-backed peace treaty was signed in 2005. In the generations between, villages were burned, children spirited away as slaves and many youths, known as the Lost Boys, were left to wander hundreds of miles across the lion-infested veld in search of safety.

Garang Wol Kon, an army recruiter, and his comrades tour these same areas today, asking people to go back to war. Originally, the recruiters said, they would have been happy netting 1,110 new soldiers. Instead, they have signed up triple that number.

“The sons and the daughters of the former liberators are the ones enjoying mobilization,” Mr. Kon said, under the shade of a tree in Aweil. “It’s something in the blood.”

Nearby, a young boy skipped by the tree, toting two wooden handmade toys he had nailed together himself — AK-47s.

Image Credit... The New York Times

Recruits are expected to train for several weeks, and then go to the front to fortify the border. But many of the training facilities are full — because so many young men have signed up to fight — and officials are now focusing on gathering matériel. At least 8,000 young men, and about 10 young women, have joined the army over the last month, recruiters say.