‘70+ Sudanese refugees murdered in South Sudan’: Missionary

More than 70 Sudanese refugees who fled the fighting in Blue Nile state for Doro, the largest and oldest refugee camp in South Sudan’s Maban county in Upper Nile state, were reportedly murdered on 24, 25, 26 December 2016.

A missionary described scenes of horror to Radio Dabanga as bodies are unburied and thousands have quit the camp to live in the open.

Idris Redco Aodra, a missionary of the Sudan Interior Church at Doro camp, told Radio Dabanga on Monday that the murders were perpetrated “by the White Army militia, with the participation of members of the regular forces from the Maban local community, including the police, prisons and security, wildlife and fire brigade”.

He said that “the dead include children, whose bodies are still scattered on the outskirts of the town of Bunj, to the west of the camp. Some of them buried in mass graves and the others were mutilated and thrown into the river.”

Aodra particularly praised the troops of the South Sudan army, which he said “did not participate in those incidents”.

He called on the government of South Sudan and the UN mission to find alternative sites for the four camps for Blue Nile refugees in Maban county “who are living in a real tragedy” in the crossfire between two war zones.

He said that about 15,000 people have fled the camp, and are living rough “in very serious and dire humanitarian situation”.

Aodra said:“The refugees from Blue Nile are leaving all the camps to the liberated territories, despite the lack of food, shelter, medicine and aerial bombardment. Maban has become a graveyard as a result of these incidents.”

He appealed via Radio Dabanga to the humanitarian organisations to immediately intervene to save those who have been displaced and are now out in the open.