5,000 South Sudanese flee fresh fighting

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Thousands of South Sudanese refugees have crossed into DRC, while some are heading to Uganda, following fresh fighting between the government and a new rebel group, the National Salvation Front.

According to reports from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 5,000 people have fled to Democratic Republic of Congo to escape fighting and violence against civilians in central equatorial state.

Arua district refugee desk officer Solomon Osakan says, in the past three weeks, they have also received more than 2,400 South Sudanese seeking refuge in Uganda.

According to Osakan, in the last two weeks of January, they received at least 100 South Sudanese daily and at least 1,000 in the last one week.

Osakan explained that the new arrivals are being taken to Rhino Camp refugee settlement camp.

Majority of refugees are however heading to the the DRC, according UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

UNHCR said earlier this month that they are seeing a surge in refugee arrivals from South Sudan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

It’s estimated that 5,000 refugees have arrived in several border villages near the town of Ingbokolo, in north-east DRC’s Ituri province, according to local village chiefs. There are reports that an additional 8,000 people are displaced inside South Sudan, on the outskirts of the town of Yei.

People are fleeing clashes that started on January 19 between the army and one of the rebel groups, the National Salvation Front (NAS). This is in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State that borders DRC and Uganda. The clashes are blocking humanitarian access to the affected areas.

The conflict in South Sudan – now in its 5th year – has forced nearly 4.2 million people to flee their homes in search of safety, nearly 2 million of them within and 2.2 million outside the country.

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