The U.S. State Department on Friday condemned actions by South Sudan’s government to prevent civilians from leaving the country after recent fighting and voiced concern about the beating and detention of some politicians.
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Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesperson, Paddy Ankunda confirmed the first batch had been evacuated and that the army would go back to bring more.
This follows a disagreement between factions loyal to South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his Deputy Riek Machar. “The number of refugees in neighboring countries is now 835,000”, he said.
The UN mission also began the temporary relocation of non-critical personnel in Juba to Entebbe on Friday, he said.
Sudan too began evacuating its nationals and the first flight carrying 76 Sudanese arrived in Khartoum on Friday afternoon.
At a press conference on Thursday, Chuol Rambang, the Chairman of the South Sudan Peace and Reconciliation Commission, asked for the support of the worldwide community, saying they should not wait until it’s too late.
Uganda gave military support to Kiir against Machar during the civil war, only pulling its troops home late a year ago.
President Kiir, however, said South Sudan would not accept more peacekeeping forces.
Humanitarians have now visited all of the reported collective displacement sites and estimate that around 8,000 people remained displaced, including around 4,300 in the UNMISS sites and some 3,700 outside, Dujarric said. Machar’s sacking as vice-president in 2013 set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines and drove more than two million out of their homes.
The conflict has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.
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Meanwhile, Ethiopia said it was ready to send more soldiers to strengthen the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
