The United Nations refugee agency says Khartoum hosts more than 247,000 South Sudanese refugees, who have crossed into Sudan fleeing war and food shortages in their country.
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Recently arrived refugees from South Sudan wait at the UNHCR Elego collection point in Northern Uganda.
A fall-out between President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Machar – the most powerful members of their respective Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups – led to the civil war which erupted in December 2013.
But fierce clashes erupted in Juba on July 8 between Kiir’s guards and troops loyal to Machar, who is now in Khartoum receiving medical treatment.
Yasmin Sooka, who led the United Nations commission team, listed concerns that included “the diminishing space for civil society which includes intimidation and harassment of its members”, adding that many activists have fled overseas.
South Sudan, along with Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia are among those countries that have produced more than a million refugees.
“Most of those fleeing South Sudan are women and children”.
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“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.
In the resolution, the council threatened to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan if the government blocks the regional force or impedes the work of United Nations peacekeepers. Mr. Machar, who fled South Sudan last month after a brief attempt at reconciliation, is believed to have taken refuge in Sudan.
“If Salva Kiir is part of the world where shame is a heavy burden to carry and quitting voluntarily from public office is a wise decision to attempt to regain one’s dignity in the face of that shame, I think he should resign immediately following the shameful exposure of his immeasurable corruption, together with his family”, Dak told Sudan Tribune.
The U.N. Security Council called on South Sudan to honor commitments to allow a regional protection force into the country and grant peacekeepers freedom of movement or face a possible arms embargo.
Another 1.6 million people are displaced inside South Sudan.
Sooka also cited “the ongoing impunity and lack of accountability for serious crimes as well as human rights in South Sudan, without which lasting peace can not be achieved”.
It revealed that South Sudan, with an estimated population of over 12 million past year, joins Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia as countries that have produced over one million refugees.
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South Sudan’s government is challenging a new report by a USA -based watchdog group that says the country’s leaders have amassed wealth overseas amid a conflict in which tens of thousands have been killed. Machar returned to Juba in April, more than two years after fleeing the South Sudanese capital and was reinstated as the president’s deputy under the terms of the peace deal.
