Sudan said on Sunday it would close its border with South Sudan within days if its neighbour did not expel militant groups, the government told state media.
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The UNHCR said over 185,000 people had fled South Sudan since the renewed fighting which erupted in the capital in Juba early July between forces led by President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former first vice president Riek Machar. “They include survivors of violent attacks, sexual assault, children that have been separated from their parents or travelled alone, the disabled, the elderly and people in need of urgent medical care”, he said.
The majority of refugees registered with the UNHCR crossed the border into Uganda (a total of 143,164 people), and others went to Kenya, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR).
“Most of those fleeing South Sudan are women and children”, Leo Dobbs, a spokesman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said at a briefing held at the UN Office at Geneva on Friday.
In terms of numbers, according to the UN, Uganda (373,626) accounts for the largest share of South Sudanese refugees. More than 1.6 million people were displaced within the country, he added.
Refugees lack food and basic household items.
Actors George Clooney (L-R) and Don Cheadle and The Sentry co-founder John Prendergast discuss The Sentry’s investigation into the ongoing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, U.S. September 12, 2016.
Ateny Wek Ateny’s statement questions whether the report’s sources really exist, and he says the allegations will be challenged.
The report said Kiir, former deputy Riek Machar and those close to both men have looted the country in accumulating wealth that includes mansions, luxury cars and stakes in a number of businesses overseas.
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The watchdog’s report also implicated worldwide banks, businesses, arms brokers, property companies and lawyers in “knowingly or unknowingly facilitating the violent kleptocracy that South Sudan has become”.
