GENEVA: More than 165,000 people have been displaced by violence in South Sudan in the last three months, with around 100,000 fleeing abroad, the United Nations said Tuesday.
South Sudan has been beset by political instability and ethnic violence since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
“Over 165,000 people have fled increasing tensions and conflict in South Sudan in the past three months, seeking safety both within the country and across borders and deepening an already dire humanitarian situation across the region,“ UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said in a statement.
Of those, around 100,000 have sought safety in the neighbouring countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.
UNHCR said it needed $36 million to support up to 343,000 displaced people within South Sudan and in neighbouring countries over the next six months.
“This emergency could not have come at a worse time,“ said Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR’s East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes regional director.
“Many of the refugees are seeking safety in countries which have challenges of their own or are already dealing with emergencies amidst ongoing brutal funding cuts, straining our ability to provide even basic life-saving assistance.”
The poverty-stricken nation has faced months of localised clashes between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar.
“South Sudan cannot afford yet another crisis,“ Dian Balde said.
Fighting and movement restrictions in Upper Nile state and other areas have hindered aid access to an estimated 65,000 newly internally displaced people, UNHCR said.
The flow of aid, including medicine and material to tackle surging cholera cases, “has ground to a halt”, with looming rains likely to exacerbate the situation, the agency said.
South Sudan remains one of the largest displacement crises in the region with more than 2.3 million South Sudanese living as refugees in the DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, UNHCR said.
