According to United Nations agencies, violence in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state has killed an unknown number of people and displaced nearly 9,000 others, some of whom are concealing in swamplands.
Conflict is common in parts of South Sudan, where scuffles over grazing areas, water, cultivation grounds, and other resources frequently turn deadly.
The high volatility politics of the country can aggravate the discord and ignite the embers of violence.
The latest bloodshed is a continuation of fighting that began in August in a village in Upper Nile and has since spread to other parts of the state as well as areas of Jonglei and Unity states, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported that 9,100 people had been displaced in the latest episode of fighting in Fashoda County, which began in mid-November.
According to a UNOCHA statement, over 2,300 of these people sought refuge at the Malakal Protection of Civilians site.
“According to local responders at least 75% of the newly displaced are women and children, with many children separated from their caregivers,” it said.
UNHCR said at least 3,000 had fled to neighbouring Sudan.
“Fleeing civilians are visibly traumatised and report killings, injuries, gender-based violence, abductions, extortion, looting and burning of properties. Many have lost their homes and been separated from their families,” UNHCR said.
South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in 2011.
Two years later, fighting broke out between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy-turned-rival Riek Machar.
A peace agreement signed in September 2018, the latest in a series reached since the conflict began in late 2013, is largely holding. South Sudan’s civil war, often fought along ethnic lines, is estimated to have claimed close to 400,000 lives.
Source: Reuters.com
