More than 3000 refugees from Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states have arrived in Yida camp in South Sudan’s Unity state in the last month to escape fresh fighting, the United Nations said.
“With arrival rates exceeding 500 people per week, that represented an increase of more than 100 percent compared to the same period of 2013,” the UN said in a press statement.
The refugees come mainly from Um Dorrein, Heiban, and Delami counties and had been forced out by violence including aerial bombings and ground attacks.
“Refugees had also cited the lack of livelihood opportunities and education in their areas of origin as reasons for leaving,” the UN said. “The majority had arrived in trucks while others had come on foot. Nearly 70 percent of new arrivals were children, and an estimated 10 percent suffered from malnutrition and measles.”
The UN noted that the government of Sudan was carrying out a wide military campaign in the two areas. Blue Nile and South Kordofan have been the sites of conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the SPLA-North rebel group since 2011.
The vast majority new arrivals have been placed in the Ajuong Thok camp, now home to 25,000 people, to ease overcrowing at Yida which hosts 80,000 people.
The statement said that the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR may not have the funding to handle the current levels of migration into South Sudan, describing an “urgent need to improve current infrastructure as well as education and shelter.”
At least 36,000 civilians have also been displaced in Sudan’s Darfur region lately due to ongoing hostilities, the international organization added.
South Sudan currently hosts nearly 250,000 refugees mostly from Sudan.
Radio Tamazuj photo: women in Yida refugee camp, 2012