More than one million refugees have fled South Sudan’s ongoing civil war, overwhelming aid agencies and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
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“With this milestone, South Sudan joins Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia as countries which have produced more than a million refugees, ” said a UNHCR statement.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Nation Mirror focused on a report by The Sentry watchdog group, co-founded by Hollywood actor George Clooney, that accused Kiir, rebel leader Riek Machar and military chiefs of corruption and profiteering during the 2013-2015 civil war. In July alone, new fighting in the capital, Juba, created a surge of more than 185,000 refugees, majority women and children.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir addresses delegates during the swearing-in ceremony of First Vice President Taban Deng Gai at the Presidential Palace in the capital of Juba, South Sudan, July 26, 2016.
Neighboring Uganda hosts the highest number of South Sudanese refugees, and 20,000 have arrived in the past week due to continued clashes in the southern part of the country.
South Sudan’s authorities have shut down a prominent newspaper, the Nation Mirror, the editor said on Wednesday, after it published details of a report released by a USA -based group alleging misuse of state funds by the nation’s leaders. They “hopefully would present a clear proposal outlining the needs of our northern neighbor”, Esipisu said. “Many children have lost one or both of their parents, some forced to become primary caregivers to younger siblings”, he noted.
African leaders called for the force after heavy fighting engulfed Juba in early July, setting back efforts to end the devastating war that has raged in South Sudan since December 2013.
Since December 2013, the United States has reportedly donated more than $1.6 billion in humanitarian aid to the world’s youngest nation.
L eaders of the two sides responsible for mass killings and rapes in the South Sudan conflict have amassed enormous wealth inside and outside the country, at least some of it illegally, according to an investigative report released on Monday by a Washington advocacy group.
But battles then broke out between his bodyguards and presidential guards three months later, prompting him to flee.
“The time for an arms embargo in South Sudan was yesterday”, Rooney, a co-chairman of the South Sudan Caucus, said.
Insecurity in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria has also significantly affected UNHCR’s ability to access and assist thousands of refugees inside South Sudan itself.
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US -based investigative group The Sentry, co-founded by Clooney and John Prendergast of the Enough Project, published a wide-ranging report on Monday that claimed that top South Sudanese officials-including President Salva Kiir and deposed vice-president Riek Machar- had benefited financially from the country’s civil conflict. Violent clashes involving tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy weaponry have continued since a peace agreement was signed in August 2015.
