Over 150,000 South Sudanese now sheltering in UN bases

JUBA – Agence France-Presse

In this photo taken Friday, June 26, 2015, a displaced family arrives at the UN base in Bentiu, South Sudan. AP Photo

The number of South Sudanese civilians sheltering in United Nations bases has risen above 150,000 for the first time in 18 months of civil war, the U.N. said on July 7.

A total of 153,769 civilians are now seeking safety behind the barbed wire of six peacekeeping bases of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).  

Many fled into the camps, which are spread across the country, as war broke out in December 2013 and have never left because they are too terrified to venture out for fear of being killed.

But tens of thousands more have entered the bases during an upsurge in fighting since April, taking those seeking shelter to the highest number yet. Over 10,000 have arrived in the past week alone, according to official figures released by UNMISS.

Over 28,000 are based in the capital Juba, where aid workers are trying to stamp out a cholera outbreak that has killed at least 32 people since cases were first recorded last month, including inside the U.N. base.

Another 91,500 are sheltering in Bentiu, capital of the northern battleground state of Unity, where a U. N. report last month described how South Sudan’s army raped then burned girls alive inside their homes during a recent campaign marked by “new brutality and intensity.”

More than 30,000 are also in the U.N. base in Malakal, capital of the northeastern Upper Nile state.

The town has been left in ruins by intense fighting, swapping hands several times, with the government forces retaking it again on July 6 after around a week under rebel control during which gunmen fired on the civilians inside the UN base.

UNMISS said that attack may constitute a war crime.

The world’s youngest nation marks on July 9 its fourth year since winning independence from north Sudan on July 9, 2011, with the UN listing South Sudan “lower in terms of human development than just about every other place on earth.”