Unaccompanied S. Sudanese children fleeing to Uganda: agency

May 18, 2017 (KAMPALA) – More than 100 lone children cross into Uganda each day as they flee conflict in South Sudan, walking for days on end with no food or family to sustain them, an aid agency said on Thursday.

“The majority of these children saw their parents being killed, while others lost touch with their families once fighting broke out. Some of them walk for more than a week to get to Uganda, with nothing to eat,” said Gilbert Kamanga, the country director of World Vision in Uganda in a statement.

“This is one of the worst forms of violence against children. It must stop. Peace needs to prevail in South Sudan,” he added.

Uganda, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), hosts some 898,000 refugees, with over 2,000 people, mostly women and children, arriving daily.

Children, UNHCR says, make up to 62% of the 1.8 million people displaced by fighting in South Sudan, and more than 75,000 unaccompanied children have fled to Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

South Sudan has witnessed renewed clashes between forces loyal to South Sudan President Salva Kiir and the armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) backing the country’s former First Vice-President Riek Machar, in spite of the August 2015 peace accord.

(ST)