The chief of United Nations refugee agency warned Monday about the sharply worsening humanitarian situation in South Sudan's Upper Nile State, pointing out that humanitarian agencies were faced with a sudden increase in refugees arriving from a state in neighboring Sudan.
"This is a dramatic change in an already difficult humanitarian situation. Not only are refugee numbers suddenly much higher, but the condition that many of these people are in is shockingly bad. Some have been eating tree leaves to survive along the way, " the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said in a news release.
According to the Office of the UN Hugh Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an estimated 35,000 refugees have arrived in Upper Nile State over the past three weeks, mostly from the Sudanese state of Blue Nile.
This increased inflow of refugees to South Sudan's Upper Nile state is in addition to the existing refugee population there of approximately 70,000. The UNHCR said the arrivals are continuing and believes most of the new refugees in Upper Nile state are too close to the volatile border for their safety.
The agency said people are being moved to safer locations at Rum and Yusuf Batil using buses and tractors, while some groups of refugees are moving on their own to other camps at Doro and Jammam. The road conditions in the region are difficult, partly because of recent rains.
"Pressure is enormous. Despite the rain, this is an area where there's simply not enough safe drinking water - this, and the security situation, makes it all the more urgent that people are relocated fast to better protected places," Guterres added in Monday's press release.
The UNHCR said in the press release that South Sudan is currently hosting some 150,000 refugees from Sudan, including the new arrivals in Upper Nile state, and noted that the figure represents a huge logistics challenge for humanitarian aid to be properly delivered.
Most fleeing to Upper Nile state were due to the ongoing bombing and ground fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North in the Sudanese state of Blue Nile.
South Sudan had declared independence from Sudan in July 2010 after having voted overwhelmingly in favor of separation from the North in a referendum. The referendum was in line with a 2005 peace agreement that ended 22 years of civil war between the Arab North and the Christian and animist South.
Talks between the two nations were stalled in April after fierce border clashes broke out between the two nations. Nevertheless, the negotiations resumed last week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
The ongoing talks under the auspices of the African Union (AU) High-Level Implementation Panel are aimed at ending weeks of border clashes between the two neighboring nations and resolving disputes related to sharing of oil wealth as well as border issues.
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