At least eight South Kordofan refugees in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State were killed during fighting last month between government loyalists and defected troops, and dozens more are still missing.
Hundreds of South Kordofan refugees who are currently at Kodok area and some other parts of the Nile’s western bank are reporting shortages of food and other humanitarian relief as well as rampant insecurity in the state.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, the executive director of Kau Nyaro Locality, Al Tayib Kadugli Soya, said about eight people from South Kordofan were confirmed killed during the conflict in the state.
Dozens of people are still missing while others returned back to their original villages owing to relative improvements in security there compared to South Sudan, according to the Sudanese official.
Soya, who is also a leading figure in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army-North, accused South Sudanese defected forces of targeting innocent Sudanese refugees under the pretext that they are affiliated to the Sudan Revolutionary Front, which is accused of fighting alongside government forces.
The spokesman of the rebels, Lul Ruai, dismissed the claims and instead accused the government forces of killing innocent Sudanese in both Unity State and Malakal of Upper Nile State.
File photo: A refugee encampment in Kodok, Upper Nile, October 2013 (Radio Tamazuj)