Renewed fighting in South Sudan displaces over 100,000: UN

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

June 3, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said over 100,000 people have been displaced over the last two months alone due to fierce fighting in South Sudan.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday, the UN refugee agency, said the heavy fighting ongoing in South Sudan’s Unity and Upper Nile states has also blocked humanitarian aid deliveries for some 650,000 people as aid organizations were forced to withdraw from war zones.

Upsurge of fighting in different areas of the country and mounting food insecurity are said to be the main reasons forcing people to leave their homes.

“It’s estimated that more than 3.8 million people, representing a third of South Sudan’s population of 11 million, do not have sufficient food,” the statement said.

The youngest East African nation plunged into chaos in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, an accusation the latter denies.

Since January this year some 60,000 South Sudanese have fled home to neighbouring countries mostly to Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya to escape ongoing fighting between government forces and rebels led Riek Machar.

“UNHCR offices in Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda have all reported sharp increases in arrivals during May” the statement said.

According to UNHCR, last week alone, some 6,000 South Sudanese arrived in Sudan’s White Nile and South Kordofan states.

Since conflict erupted, the UN said some 555,000 people have fled the country while some 1.5 million have been displaced internally.

The UN refugee agency also said its aid programme for South Sudan is lacking funding and expressed concern that the 2015 South Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan that covers the refugee programmes in the neighbouring countries, run by UNHCR and 39 partners, is only funded at 10 percent.

“This leaves many lifesaving activities such as the provision of clean water, sanitation and health services, food and shelter severely underfunded,” it added.

Meanwhile, the UNHCR has launched its annual World Refugee Day Campaign in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The Campaign was launched on Tuesday with the release of several films featuring celebrity supporters that tell the human side of the refugee plight.

The UN refugee agency said this year’s campaign aims to bring the public closer to the story, showing refugees as ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances.

The films feature UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and best-selling author, Khaled Hosseini, photographer and supermodel, Helena Christensen, singer and songwriter Maher Zain and actor Jung Woo-Sung.

(ST)