Wani Michael grimaces, then digs with both hands into the pile of foul trash.
It's hot - hotter than usual during the rainy season, and the burning sun intensifies the stench of rotten garbage on the roadside.
It's not a fun task he and hundreds of other young people have chosen for this sunny Saturday morning.
But they won't be swayed from their mission: Cleaning the streets of South Sudan's capital Juba - both literally and symbolically.
"We want to tell our leadership that if we can clean up our streets, we can clean up our country," Michael, co-organizer of the protest and executive director of the Okay Africa Foundation, told DW.
Under the banner #NadafaLeBeledna, which means "cleaning our nation" in the local language Juba Arabic, several youth groups are combining environmental protection with a call to end the brutal five-year civil war, which has killed an estimated 380,000 people and destroyed the country's economy.
"As young people, we have a responsibility to bring about peace and coexistence among ourselves," Michael added.
Surrounded by music from a sound system installed on a truck, and equipped with brooms, gloves and dust masks, the youth move from street to street in the city center.
They find garbage everywhere they go. Piles of rubbish rot on the roadside, plastic bottles lie in ditches.
Some of the groups make it to the parliament and clean in front of the bullet-riddled wall surrounding the government building.
Bystanders look with eyes wide open; some spontaneously join in and pick up trash, others keep on staring in disbelief - most people typically avoid government buildings, which are protected by soldiers armed with machine guns.
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