Scores Flee Violence in S. Sudan

Local Editor

The United Nations refugee agency said a rise in fighting in a once-peaceful part of South Sudan forced tens of thousands of civilians to leave their homes since December.

Spokesman for the agency, Rocco Nuri, said Saturday that 23,000 civilians fled their homes in South Sudan's Western Equatoria state, including 8,000 people who left for neighboring countries.

However, he added that many of them are hiding in forests and are beyond reach of aid groups.

The country's two-year conflict is mostly focused in the country's northeast between government troops and rebel forces, but numerous militia succeeded in formation in Western Equatoria recently.

For his part, the governor of Western Equatoria, Rafael Patrick Zamoi said that the government aims to make peace with insurgents but will crack down on those causing instability.

Relatively, a recent UN mission to Yambio found nearly 200 houses burnt down in the neighborhood of Ikpiro and several hundred others looted. People have taken refuge in the town center or moved to nearby villages, in which the UN estimates put the number of people displaced in Western Equatoria's Yambio and Tambura counties at 15,000 since the start of December.

Last month, UNHCR reported that fighting between local groups known as the "Arrow Boys" and the South Sudan army in Western Equatoria displaced over 4,000 people into a remote region of north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team