The agency’s spokesman in Geneva said that “The number of South Sudanese refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries has this week passed the 1 million mark, including more than 185,000 people who have fled since fresh violence erupted in the country in Juba on July 8”.
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“This is a very sad milestone, ” said Leo Dobbs, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency. Recent clashes between supporters of President Salva Kiir and his now-former deputy, Riek Machar, threw into turmoil a transitional government created to end the conflict.
Speaking in his national capacity, Van Bohemen said he believed it was time to implement an arms embargo, something most Western diplomats support.
In terms of numbers, according to the UN, Uganda (373,626) accounts for the largest share of South Sudanese refugees.
African leaders called for the force after heavy fighting engulfed Juba in early July, setting back efforts to end the devastating war that has raged in South Sudan since December 2013.
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal.
According to local broadcaster, eNews Channel Africa, (eNCA), Kamal Ismail, Sudan’s minister of state in the foreign ministry said South Sudan’s Vice President Taban Deng had vowed to expel the rebels within 21 days during his visit to Khartoum in August.
United Nations’ secretary-general Ban Ki-moon recently launched an “independent special investigation” into harrowing allegations that UN peacekeepers did not respond to prevent the abuse, rape and killings of several civilians and foreigners in South Sudan’s war-torn capital.
On Wednesday, a South Sudan newspaper, The Nation Mirror, said the government had ordered its shutdown the day it published a front-page story on the watchdog report.
President Kiir’s spokesperson, Ateny Wek Ateny, on his part reacted angrily against the exposure of the president’s corruption allegations, saying the government would take The Sentry to court.
The group’s founders are the actor George Clooney and John Prendergast, a rights activist and former United States government official.
The fighting that erupted in July between supporters of President Salva Kiir and then-Vice President Riek Machar “has shattered hopes for a real breakthrough and triggered new waves of displacement and suffering”, Dobbs said.
This makes South Sudan join Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia as countries which have produced more than a million refugees.
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In addition to instituting an arms embargo and imposing targeted sanctions, the Halt Arms and Promote Peace in South Sudan Act would lay the groundwork for a recovery and reconstruction program to help the country rebuild after 180 days of ceasefire.
