Escaping the slaughter: The young refugees who ran from South Sudan’s ethnic violence

South Sudan is the world’s youngest country – and its young are suffering the most. More than a million people have fled abroad from ethnic violence that has killed an estimated 50,000.

The UN Refugee Agency, alongside Ugandan authorities, runs what has become the world’s second largest refugee camp. Bidi Bidi is home to 270,000 people – and it seems each of them is a witness to extreme brutality.

“It’s war and our parents die,” says Lena, a 16 year old refugee traumatized by the deaths of her mother and father. “There are many orphans here.”

The United Nations is sufficiently concerned at the escalation of violence to warn of the potential for genocide. However, the UN Security Council failed to agree an arms embargo on the country.

The UK government has provided more than £100m in aid to South Sudan this year and British troops are due to bolster the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan in the months ahead. But by then, there might be little peace to keep.

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Bookseller of Malakal brings words of comfort to war-torn South Sudan

Just over three years ago Juma’a Ali traveled to South Sudan to escape persecution with all the books he could carry. Unfortunately, around the time of his arrival, civil war broke out in the world’s youngest country. Now he is one of the tens of thousands displaced people, but he still has hope. Ali’s little book shop now stands as a source of education and distraction from the often deplorable conditions the camp’s residents live with on a daily basis.

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South Sudan Could Repeat Rwanda’s Horrors

South Sudan is “on the brink of a catastrophe” and is being warned of a repeat of the Rwandan genocide. Violence is spreading through regions of South Sudan, such as Central Equatoria, that had previously been quiet.

There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages; everywhere we went across this country we heard villagers saying they are ready to shed blood to get their land back,” says Yasmine Sooka, the chairman of a three-member U.N. commission on human rights. “Many told us it’s already reached a point of no return.”

The U.N. Security Council was expected to vote on a resolution on November 29th imposing targeted sanctions and an arms embargo, but then Russia, China and others expressed opposition and the vote was put off. An earlier plan to send 4,000 peacekeepers for a regional protection force to join the 12,000 already in South Sudan has yet to be implemented.

“The scale of rape of women and girls perpetrated by all armed groups in South Sudan is utterly unacceptable and is frankly mind boggling” adds Ms. Sooka. She said aid workers described gang rape as so prevalent that it has become “normal.”

A report from the Council on Foreign Relations says the danger of genocide is real and proposed that the United Nations and African Union run the country for 10 to 15 years to help it rebuild.

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The Chaos in South Sudan Keeps Getting Worse

At an orphanage at the edge of Juba, South Sudan’s battered capital, there are no longer any children. The orphanage, which is run by an Austrian Non-Governmental Organization, had to move to a more secure part of town after fighting broke out nearby in July. It is now considering moving back—but only if the security lasts, a tough call in a country plagued by economic crisis and dire warnings of genocide.

The fighting in July was between the forces of Salva Kiir, the president, and Riek Machar, the former vice-president, after a peace deal broke down. Since then the city has returned to an uneasy calm, but the rest of South Sudan has not. A war that had previously been concentrated in the swampy north of the country has spread to southern areas, which had been peaceful. Worse, the fighting has provoked violence between ethnic groups.

While many other organizations are fleeing the area due to violence, the Sudan Relief Fund is committed to staying to help young victims that have no family to turn to, and nowhere else to go. The two orphanages funded by the Sudan Relief Fund, The Congregation of Christian Brothers’ Star Support Group and The Saint Bakhita Orphanage, support children in South Sudan-Yambio by providing food, health and medical services, school fees, and basic daily necessities.

With a kind donation, the Sudan Relief Fund will be able to address their important daily needs and help empower the next generation in South Sudan.

Click here to donate and support the orphans of South Sudan.

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Thousands Trapped by Fighting in South Sudan Receive Emergency Aid

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said it has distributed life-saving items to more than 6,000 vulnerable families trapped by fighting in Yei River state over the last six months.

Internally displaced people say they welcome the relief aid, but want to be allowed to safely return to their home villages. The food rations they are receiving are not enough to survive on.

UNHCR officials say more than 10,000 families were displaced from their homes in Yei County after fighting broke out between government forces and armed opposition groups aligned to former Vice President Riek Machar. Aid workers and local leaders say thousands of Yei residents have been forced to flee to neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo because of the rampant security issues insecurity.

The U.N. also said at least 100,000 Yei residents have been stranded within the town, with no means of escape.

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Over a Dozen Killed in South Sudan Clashes

South Sudanese soldiers and rebels have clashed in a state bordering Sudan, killing at least 15 people. The army said that it moved in after spotting rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar trying to steal cattle in the small village of Adaab el Bahr, in Unity State. The rebels then caught them in an ambush, which carried on for just short of an hour.

A spokesman for the Machar-allied SPLA-In-Opposition said that his forces killed 20 soldiers – higher than the government estimate of 15- and another 23 in a fight in Tore, in Central Equatoria state, on the same day.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN said on Thursday that the United States will be presenting a draft Security Council resolution in the coming days, which would impose an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on South Sudan.

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