OVER a million refugees have fled South Sudan’s ongoing civil war, overwhelming aid agencies and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, the United Nations said yesterday.
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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.
Heading into Wednesday’s meeting, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said Security Council members returned from their visit to South Sudan feeling the situation was much worse than they had imagined.
The UN says more than 185,000 people have fled South Sudan since July.
The three members are now in Addis Ababa where they are holding additional meetings with high-level officials from the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, etc. and will later travel to Uganda to interact with South Sudanese refugees and for further meetings in connection with their mandate**. Over the past week alone, Uganda recorded more than 20,000 new arrivals from its neighbor, the United Nations agency said.
“These countries have commendably kept their doors open to the new arrivals”, Dobbs told reporters at the Palais des Nations.
“They keep coming”, Dobbs said.
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.
The United States welcomes The Sentry’s report chronicling public corruption among South Sudan’s leaders, including President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar.
“Many children have lost one or both of their parents, some forced to become primary caregivers to siblings.”
Refugees also lack food and basic household items and earlier this month refuges near the city of Doruma, (in DRC’s Haut-Uele province) were attacked by unknown assailants.
The report appeared to be the first to draw a direct causal link between public corruption and armed conflict in South Sudan, the world’s youngest country.
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Other findings showed that Mr. Kiir’s wife, his brother-in-law and at least seven of his children, including a 12-year-old son, had stakes in “a wide range of business ventures” in South Sudan that suggested nepotism and corruption in violation of the country’s laws. UNHCR is calling on donors to provide US$701 million for South Sudan refugee operations, of which 20 per cent has been funded.
