May 31, 2013 (BOR) – More than 23,500 people have been forced from their homes in Jonglei state, where the South Sudanese army are fighting an armed rebellion in Pibor county, according to the United Nations.
A child who has recently returned to South Sudan is forced to eat dry rice by her mother in Jonglei state(ST File)The UN Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said in a report earlier this week that 19,000 had been displaced in recent fighting but Tim Irwin, a spokesperson for the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), said on Friday that the number of of those seeking refuge Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Ethiopia, which borders Jonglei’s Pibor county, has received about 16,000 people since the beginning of May, Irwin told AP, while 5,000 have arrived in Kenya and 2,500 in Uganda.
Most of those fleeing are women and children, he said, as men will often “stay behind to protect the land and take care of the livestock.”
Jonglei state’s governor, Kuol Manyang Juuk, told Sudan Tribune on Friday that the increasing displacement was due to the 10-month-old rebellion by David Yauyau, a priest by training who first begin fighting the government after he failed to become an MP in the 2010 election. Yauyau briefly accepted an amnesty in 2011 before resuming his rebellion with the alleged help of neighbouring Sudan.
“Most people must have ran to Ethiopia and Kenya, these are always the results of war and conflict”, Governor Manyang said.
Manyang said that some civilians in Pibor that are controlled by the South Sudanese army (SPLA) lack “food and certain necessities”, calling upon the humanitarian organisations to come for their rescue.
“Those NGOs, and UN agencies that [left] Pibor because of fear, should now come back to continue providing necessary help to the needy ones there.”
The SPLA, he said, he cleared Yauyau’s forces from Boma and Maruo and some other villages. “All the rebels elements are being pursued by the army now”, Manyang added.
Officials within South Sudan’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) expressing doubts over the high numbers of displaced given by the UN, warning that some people from other areas of the country might have used the Jonglei situation to gain access to refugee camps in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.
Pibor county’s commissioner, Joshua Konyi, told Sudan Tribune on Friday that he had received information that some of the people now arriving in Ethiopia had ran to Yauyau’s side for protection during recent clashes. Having realised that his armed group could not protect them they got into difficulties and had to resort to seeking refugees in Ethiopia.
Other people had left for South Sudan’s capital, Juba, but Konyi did not “know how they made it”.
The commissioner of the troubled county declined to reveal who informed him about the presence of Jonglei refugees in Ethiopia and where exactly the refugee camps are located in Ethiopia.
According to Konyi, those who listened to his advice stayed in Pibor with him, after he assured them of their safety.
“Those who listened to my advise are now here, and what we now lack is the food for them, because humanitarian agencies did not come back with food yet”, said Konyi said Juba Arabic on the phone from Pibor.
The RRC warned humanitarian agencies not to conduct self-initiated assessment missions without involving local actors before providing food aid.
Gabriel Deng Ajak, the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission RRC director in Jonglei state (ST File)The Jonglei director for RRC, Deng Ajak, said in 28 May letter to different humanitarians partners that involving his body would improve the quality of humanitarian actions.
“In order to improve the quality of humanitarian actions during the response and to be held accountable, there is a need to strengthen the level of coordination with the government at all levels”, he said in his letter.
RCC Jonglei letter to all humanitarian partners – 28 May 2013“Hereforth, all the humanitarian operating in Jonglei, are urged to abide by the above principles and include all RRC in all the assessment missions in the state without undermining its institutional structures from the national level to payams [sub districts]”, he ordered.
The letter was sent, according the RRC director, to various humanitarian agencies in South Sudan.
(ST)
