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Displacement continues in Sudan's South Kordofan region: UN

Xinhua, June 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Five years after the start of the conflict in Sudan's South Kordofan State, people are still fleeing the region, with most crossing into neighboring South Sudan, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday.

So far in 2016, more than 7,500 refugees have arrived in Yida in South Sudan's northern Unity, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said, citing the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Nearly 3,000 people arrived in May alone and "nearly 90 percent of new arrivals are women and children," Haq said. "Refugees speak of escalating violence, including ground attacks and aerial bombings."

At the Yida transit center, the UNHCR and its partners were providing immediate assistance to the arrivals. From Yida, refugees were transported after a few days by bus to Ajuong Thok, a camp established in 2013 to help ease some of the pressure.

"There they are provided with plastic sheeting and poles to build a temporary home," he said. "They also get cooking pots and pans, mosquito nets, blankets, sleeping mats and food."

But with nearly 41,000 Sudanese refugees already living in Ajuong Thok, the camp has almost reached its capacity. The UNHCR and its partners have been expanding camp infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing population.

A new camp is underway at Pamir, some 50 km south of the border, to receive new arrivals and refugees who have been living in Yida for the past five years, he said. "UNHCR added that as the refugee influx continues, services are becoming overstretched and only just 17 percent of the agency's operations in South Sudan are funded."

The military confrontations between the Sudanese army and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector have escalated since March 2015.

In March, the Sudanese army announced controlling of Um Sirdiba area, one of the strongholds of the rebels of the SPLM/northern sector in South Kordofan State.

The SPLM/northern sector has been fighting the central government at Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas since 2011.

Last March, the peace talks between the government and the SPLM/northern sector rebels failed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, under the patronage of the African Union.

Khartoum unilaterally signed on a road-map deal proposed by the African mediation, while the SPLM/northern sector and other Darfur rebel movements declined to sign the deal. Endit