Sudan’s White Nile state witnesses large influx of South Sudanese refugees

The Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) said that 3,000 South Sudanese families have recently arrived in Sudan’s White Nile state bringing the total number of refugees from the newborn country in the state 84,000 refugees.

SRCS executive director in White Nile, Osama Osman, said that 3,197 families have arrived in the seven cantonment sites in the state from June 1 to July 5, 2015.

He told the official news agency SUNA that the sites are located in the border localities of El Salam and El Jebeleina, saying the total number of South Sudanese refugees in the White Nile reached 84,000.

Osman pointed that SRCS provides food and shelter besides other services to the refugees in coordination with the United Nations (UN) agencies including the World Food Programme (WFP), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Last week, the UNHCR said the influx of South Sudanese refugees to Sudan continues with a total estimated 180,500 refugees having arrived in the country since fighting erupted in South Sudan in mid-December 2013.

31,000 arrivals in June

According to UNHCR, in the last week alone, 7,722 South Sudanese refugees have crossed into White Nile, West Kordofan and South Kordofan bringing the total number of arrivals in the month of June alone to over 31,000, and to 65,055 since the start of 2015.

Since January this year some 60,000 South Sudanese have fled home to neighbouring countries mostly to Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya to escape ongoing fighting between government forces and rebels led by Riek Machar.

The UN said some 555,000 people have fled the country while some 1.5 million have been displaced internally since eruption of the conflict.

(ST)