Violent clashes that erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan have forced 542,000 individuals into South Sudan since mid-April 2023, the UN humanitarian agency said Monday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 80 per cent of the returnees are South Sudanese and 19 per cent Sudanese, indicating that there are still a lot of people fleeing Sudan, with higher numbers of Sudanese on an average daily basis.
OCHA said some 107,802 refugees and asylum-seekers have arrived in South Sudan since the beginning of the response, with 94 per cent or 101,097 people processed and biometrically registered.
“The arrival of refugees increased following an escalation of fighting in Sudan in mid-December and continued during the reporting period,” OCHA said in its latest report released in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
Deadly clashes have been going on between the SAF and the paramilitary forces since mid-April last year.
The conflict has killed more than 9,000 people, displacing over 6 million others within and outside Sudan and leaving 25 million in need of aid, according to the UN.
OCHA also decried the security situation in the Abyei Administrative Area which it said has deteriorated significantly following a wave of attacks across the region, including an attack on the UN Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) base in Agok that resulted in casualties and suspended all humanitarian movement until further notice.
“This has subsequently hindered plans to resume the relocation of new arrivals from Abyei to Aweil and the delivery of core relief items and food/cash assistance to the Abyei TC, where about 100 Sudanese refugee arrivals are sheltering and awaiting relocation,” OCHA said.
According to Save the Children, a global charity, at least 75 people, including three children, have been killed and 2,200 displaced in two weeks of brutal violence between communities in the Abyei Special Administrative Area.
The charity said the actual number of those killed in the fighting between armed youth of the Twic community of neighbouring Warrap state and Ngok Dinka of Abyei could be much higher.
