Northern Bahr el Ghazal in humanitarian crisis, thousands flee to Sudan
March 15, 2016 (JUBA) – Thousands of people from South Sudan’s Bahr el Ghazal region are fleeing across the borders to the neighbouring Sudan due to hunger crisis in the north-western part of the world’s youngest nation, aid agencies have revealed.
“The humanitarian situation is deteriorating in the state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal in South Sudan and across the border in Sudan. There are about 280,000 people identified as being in crisis situation in Northern Bahr el Ghazal,” partly reads the report extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.
The report said the hunger situation started to deteriorate last month with humanitarian organizations reporting that the number of children being admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition has increased during the month of February 2016.
Thousands of civilians fleeing from Northern Bahr el Ghazal state are reportedly seeking assistance across the border in Sudan’s East Darfur and El Daein locality.
World Food Program (WFP) has intervened by distributing one-month food rations to 5,000 people in February as registration inside Sudan is ongoing to establish the exact figures of new arrivals from South Sudan.
The report also painted a gloomy picture about the situation of those trapped inside Northern Bahr el Ghazal, as over 12,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have left their villages due to food scarcity and encamped in the wilderness in search of food.
“They [12,000 people] are staying next to a river, where they rely on fish to survive and are living in makeshift settlements,” it said.
SOUTH SUDANESE ARRIVALS IN SUDAN
Meanwhile the number of the South Sudanese who have fled to Sudan for the last two years has reached nearly 200,000 people.
As of 29 February, the registered number of South Sudanese who have arrived in Sudan since fighting erupted in South Sudan in mid-December 2013 was recorded as 173,834 following the completion of the roll-out of individual biometric registration in White Nile State,” according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
As of 28 February, the reported said, an estimated 130,000 of these refugees or IDPs had received some form of humanitarian assistance.
UNHCR and Sudanese humanitarian agency’s registration teams have resumed registration in Al Alagaya and Dabat Bosin sites for people who arrived after the last registration was completed in November 2015.
(ST)