South Sudan’s estimated population was over 12 million a year ago, according to the World Bank.
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The UN says more than 185,000 people have fled South Sudan since July.
South Africa is one of the countries in the continent which played a supportive role to the regional led mediation to reunite fragmented ruling party in South Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), and to end the 21 months of civil war.
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. Countless villages have been burnt to the ground, nearly half the population relies on food assistance to survive, and human rights organizations say government and rebel forces have frequently used rape as a weapon of war.
It called on donors to contribute the remaining four-fifths of a total $US701 million needed for South Sudanese refugee operations.
“Uganda is hosting the lion’s share of South Sudanese refugees, with 373,626”, it said.
“The violence in July came as a major setback to peace efforts in South Sudan”, the UNHCR spokesman Leo Dobbs said in a statement.
FILE – In this Friday, April 29, 2016 file photo, the then South Sudan’s First Vice President Riek Machar, left, looks across at President Salva Kiir, right, as they sit to be photographerd following the first meeting of a new transitional coalition government, in the capital Juba, South Sudan. “Many children have lost one or both of their parents”, the UNHCR says.
Meanwhile several civil society activists who met with a UN Security Council team last week have fled a government crackdown.
The UNHCR spokesperson further reported that the new arrivals spoke of increased fighting and attacks by armed groups that kill civilians, loot villages, sexually assault women and girls, and recruit young boys.
It said the refugees in neighboring countries “arrive exhausted after days [of] walking in the bush and going without food or water”.
Numerous refugees arriving in Uganda, which hosts the most South Sudanese, are “exhausted after days walking in the bush and going without food or water”. They keep coming; over the past week more than 20,000 new arrivals were recorded, primarily through the Oraba crossing in the northwest. Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic also have received tens of thousands of people fleeing.
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As for the situation on the ground, he reported that according to UNHCR field staff, new arrivals are camped in schools and churches, but many have to sleep in the open.
