“This is a very sad milestone, ” said Leo Dobbs, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency.
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South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, has been riven by ethnic violence almost since it was founded in 2011, with civil war breaking out in 2013 between the Dinka and Nuer peoples. However, fighting broke out again in July and this prompted Machar to flee to Sudan.
With more than 300 people killed and soldiers specifically targeting global aid workers, the United Nations is now increasing the pressure on Pres. Salva Kiir.
Uganda, which hosts more than 370,000 South Sudanese, recorded more than 20,000 new arrivals over the past week alone, bringing the total number of refugees past the one million mark.
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Juba: South Sudan’s authorities have shut down a prominent newspaper, the Nation Mirror, the editor said on Wednesday, after it published details of a report released by a US-based group alleging misuse of state funds by the nation’s leaders.
Another 1.6 million people are displaced inside South Sudan.
Refugees make maize porridge at a transit centre for South Sudanese refugees in the remote north-western district of Adjumani, Uganda.
He also reported that insecurity in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria province has significantly affected the United Nations agency’s ability to access and assist thousands of refugees inside the country itself.
Only five years after the country came into being, South Sudan has produced than one million refugees because of civil war.
Smaller numbers have also fled to Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR), since July.
“Uganda is hosting the lion’s share of South Sudanese refugees, with 373,626”, it said.
But refugees report increased fighting in southern South Sudan and attacks by armed groups that murder civilians, loot villages, forcibly recruit young men and boys and rape women and girls.
“These countries have commendably kept their doors open to the new arrivals”, UNHCR said.
“Essentially the meeting agreed that the government of South Sudan should send a delegation to Nairobi to deliberate on the subject”, Esipisu said soon after.
“Without further funding and support, we and our partners will struggle to assist the needy with even the most basic assistance”, Dobbs said today.
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Actors George Clooney (L-R) and Don Cheadle and The Sentry co-founder John Prendergast discuss The Sentry’s investigation into the ongoing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, U.S. September 12, 2016. The peace agreement signed in August 2015 failed to end renewed clashes between rival army factions that erupted in July.
