The number of South Sudanese refugees in Kenya has risen to 46,000, bringing the total population of Kakuma camp in the country’s northwest to 185,000, far beyond its capacity of 125,000, the UN’s refugee agency has said.
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Veitch warned that if the current outbreak spreads beyond current locations, especially into the states affected by conflict, the lack of functioning health facilities could lead to a devastating loss of life. “Our priority right now is reaching the most vulnerable children who urgently need clean water and vaccinations”.
Uganda has thousands of troops in South Sudan helping President Salva Kiir fight the rebels headed by his long-time political rival and ex- deputy, Riek Machar.
As South Sudan prepares to mark its fourth anniversary of independence, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday that continued conflict was pushing the numbers of refugee and internally displaced people ever higher.
“This is not the first time that an UNMISS protection-of-civilians site has come under attack by armed elements in South Sudan, and such indefensible actions will compromise the Mission’s ability to implement its mandate if they continue to go unpunished”. Over 10,000 have arrived in the past week alone, according to official figures released by UNMISS.
Meanwhile, the country is also being threatened by a cholera outbreak amid mounting reports of contagion throughout the capital, Juba, and the nearby city of Bor. Investigators said they had collected at least nine separate incidents where “women and girls were burnt in tukuls (huts) after being gang-raped” as well as scores of cases of sexual violence, which included numerous cases of mothers raped in front of their children. “None has been shot at unless the rebels shot a ghost aircraft”, Tabaro said. “In addition, South Sudan continues to receive refugees from neighbouring Sudan – nearly 250,000 people, mostly from Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states”, The UNHCR said.
The town has been left in ruins by intense fighting, swapping hands several times, with the government forces retaking it again on Monday after around a week under rebel control during which gunmen killed a civilian and wounded others inside the United Nations base.
South Sudan was officially declared independent on July 9, 2011, following a referendum in which around 99 percent of the southerners voted for its secession from Sudan.
Kiir accused Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings across the country that has split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.
Over 730,000 South Sudanese are refugees in neighbouring nations.
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“Recent weeks have seen an escalation in violence in Unity and Upper Nile states, with heavy fighting forcing tens of thousands of people to flee to the bush and swamplands”. UNHCR and 38 partners are requesting US$810 million to protect and assist up to 821,000 South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.
