Fighting that broke out in the capital, Juba, in July is responsible for the latest surge in those fleeing, it says.
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Members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, established by the Human Rights Council in March this year, concluded its first mission to the east-central African country yesterday after having met with a wide range of actors.
South Sudan, which only gained independence from Sudan in 2011, descended into civil war in December 2013 after Kiir accused Machar of plotting a presidential coup. Tens of thousands of people have died and more than 2.5 million been driven from their homes.
According the the United Nations, neighbouring Uganda hosts the largest number of South Sudanese refugees, more than 373,000, and more than 20,000 arrived there just in the past week.
“The leaders of South Sudan’s warring parties manipulate and exploit ethnic divisions in order to drum up support for a conflict that serves the interests only of the top leaders of these two kleptocratic networks”, the report 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. “The worldwide community … must act very fast to end this violence”, Disaster and Refugees Minister Musa Ecweru told AFP. “We appeal to donors to step up funding”, he added. Recent clashes between supporters of President Salva Kiir and his now-former deputy, Riek Machar, threw into turmoil a transitional government created to end the conflict. Mr. Machar, who fled South Sudan last month after a brief attempt at reconciliation, is believed to have taken refuge in Sudan.
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.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said the joint communique agreed between the United Nations and the Juba government on the deployment of the force “had not been acted upon at all”. But then it asked to re-negotiate the size of the force, irritating the global community.
It said refugees arriving in neighbouring countries were reporting heavy fighting across the southern Greater Equatoria region, where armed groups were killing civilians, sexually assaulting women and girls and recruiting young boys.
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A South Sudan refugee family share a meal at the UNHCR managed refugees reception point at Elegu, within Amuru district of the northern region near the South Sudan-Uganda border, August 20, 2016.
