Thousands of refugees flee conflict in S. Sudan’s Jonglei state, says UN
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
July 21, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) – Thousands of South Sudanese have fled to Ethiopia to escape an armed conflict in eastern South Sudan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Sunday.
The asylum seekers, mostly from Jonglei state’s Pibor county, are fleeing fighting between government troops and rebel fighters in the Boma area, near the Ethiopian border.
“Since last May, some 5,000 South Sudanese arrived in western Ethiopia and sought refuge”, Kisut Gebre Egziabher, the UNHCR’s senior public information associate, told Sudan Tribune.
Most of the arrivals are women and children, currently being sheltered in the bordering region of Gambella in Raad locality.
The UNHCR says it is distributing food and non-food aid items to newly-arrived South Sudanese refugees, as a government decision on whether to relocate the refugees remains pending.
UNHCR and its partners are also providing health care facilities, water and sanitation at the camp, where the refugees are staying temporarily.
Ethiopia currently hosts more than 62,000 South Sudanese.
Ethnic violence between the Lou Nuer and Murle tribal groups again erupted in Jonglei earlier this month, when thousands of armed Lou Nuer men travelling on foot moved into remote areas of Pibor county, a predominantly Murle area.
Thousands of civilians were consequently displaced from their homes after South Sudan’s army (SPLA) launched an operation to quash the rebellion.
In early May, rebels seized control of Pibor town before it was eventually retaken by the SPLA two weeks later.
South Sudan has accused Sudan of supporting the rebel movement in Jonglei state in a bid to sabotage its plans to build an oil pipeline that passes through the region as part of efforts to end the country’s dependency on Sudanese pipelines to export crude oil.
Sudan and South Sudan continue to trade tit-for-tat accusations of providing support to rebel movements. Both countries have denied the allegations.
The UN says South Sudanese refugees prefer to cross the border to neighbouring countries to seek asylum as the area lacks humanitarian access.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), all six of Pibor’s major population centres have since been abandoned, with about 40,000 inhabitants displaced. At least 8,500 Murle are estimated to have fled to neighbouring countries this year, while about 7,000 escaped to the South Sudanese capital, Juba.
South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, has in the past offered an amnesty deal to rebel groups in an attempt to disarm them.
The government says it is planning an oil exploration operation in Jonglei – South Sudan’s largest state.
The region has a history of deadly violence and hundreds have died as a result of inter-communal clashes and raids between rival cattle herding communities since South Sudan gained independence in July 2011.
(ST)