Up to 60,000 people have fled South Sudan since violence escalated over the past three weeks, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said.
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UNHCR pointed out that new arrivals from Yei, a town southwest of capital Juba that lies close to the Congolese and Ugandan borders, had received letters warning them to leave the town ahead of clashes between rebels and government forces.
But the refugees’ journey has been all but smooth sailing as “refugees have also reported that armed groups operating across different parts of South Sudan are looting villages, murdering civilians and forcibly recruiting young men and boys into their ranks”.
Numerous refugees pouring into neighboring Uganda, Kenya and Sudan have been carrying malnourished children, the refugee agency the UNHCR added, the victims of a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by food shortages and a cholera outbreak.
In July, the 2015 peace agreement in South Sudan between fighters loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar collapsed, with three days of renewed fighting during which more than 300 people were killed.
The pair of rivals signed a peace agreement late previous year, under which Machar was once again made vice president.
“In total, 60,000 people have fled the country since violence broke out in Juba last month, bringing the overall number of South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries since December 2013 to almost 900,000”, UNHCR said in a statement issued to the media on Tuesday.
According to the United Nations agency, over 85 percent of the South Sudanese refugees arriving in Uganda are women and children, many of them having lost one, or both parents.
“Both Kenya and Uganda are reporting rising cases of severe malnutrition, particularly among very young children”, Yaxley said.
The country had about 11 million residents at the time.
It further condemned in the strongest terms the continued restrictions hindering the movement of the ceasefire monitoring teams and UNMISS personnel, and called on the South Sudanese government to take the necessary measures to clear these hindrances.
“Membership of IGAD is voluntarily thing and if the IGAD member states know that, they must be very careful with their conduct and outlook [towards] other member states like South Sudan”, Makuei said.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
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The personal rivalry between Kiir, from the Dinka group, and Machar, a Nuer, has worsened ethnic splits in a country awash with weapons since the long civil war that led to its separation from Sudan in 2011.
