South Sudan’s recent spike in violence has pushed more people out of its borders.
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Uganda alone hosts about 374,000 refugees from South Sudan.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says her country will support an arms embargo on South Sudan if the government there continues to prevent peacekeepers from moving around freely to protect civilians. The humanitarian situation in South Sudan has witnessed significant deterioration, including in areas that were once relatively stable.
“South Sudan’s top officials have benefited both financially and politically from the continuing war and atrocities committed within their country”.
While leaders have been pillaging government coffers, global donors including the United States have remained steady supporters of the South Sudanese people, providing basic services including health and education that are essential for the population’s future, as well as massive lifesaving assistance that has helped avert starvation over the last two years. This “while much of their country’s population suffers from the consequences of a brutal civil war and, in many places, experiences near-famine conditions”, the report said.
The report released Monday by The Sentry, co-founded by actor George Clooney, said South Sudan’s leaders have amassed millions of dollars in wealth overseas amid a civil war in which tens of thousands have been killed.
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.
Officials from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan were speaking at a news conference in Juba the day after the editor of a prominent newspaper in the five-year-old nation said his publication had been shut down by the authorities.
“With this milestone, South Sudan joins Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia as countries which have produced more than a million refugees”, said Dobbs. Another 1.6 million South Sudanese are displaced within the country.
With more than 300 people killed and soldiers specifically targeting worldwide aid workers, the United Nations is now increasing the pressure on Pres. Salva Kiir.
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“Without further funding and support, we and our partners will struggle to assist the needy with even the most basic assistance”, the UNHCR said. UNHCR is calling on donors to provide US$701 million for South Sudan refugee operations, of which 20 per cent has been funded. The peace agreement signed in August 2015 failed to end renewed clashes between rival army factions that erupted in July.
