A number of South Sudanese and expatriate aid workers have returned to Yida refugee camp after having evacuated in late December owing to clashes in the county within the SPLA and organized forces.

Located in Unity State’s Pariang County, which remains under the control of SPLA forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, the county is home to nearly 80,000 refugees from Sudan at two camps, Yida and Adjuong Tok.

NGO Samaritan’s Purse, which established Yida Camp more than two years ago, ordered on 20 December a mass evacuation of its expatriate employees in the country, while other organizations did the same.

According to an observer in the camp, expatriate aid workers from Samaritan’s Purse, Doctors Without Borders, and the United Nations arrived by plane back in the camp on 10 December, while several South Sudanese aid workers had come the previous day, 9 December.

However, about a thousand South Sudanese and people of other nationalities including Somalis are crowded into the camp seeking to go to Juba, according to the same observer, and there are few airplanes to take them.

Before the crisis, Yida camp was served by the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) three times per week, but since mid December many of these flights were canceled and the normal routing was disrupted because they could no longer go via Rubkona, which was under opposition control.

It remains to be seen whether they will be continued as previously, given the recapture of Rubkona by government forces. The organizations Samaritan’s Purse and MSF, which have their own aircraft, may undertake their own direct flights into the camp from Juba.

File photo: A child performs a test at a nursery school graduation ceremony in Yida refugee camp (Radio Tamazuj)