UN: Over 37,000 South Sudanese Displaced Into Uganda

MEP: More than 37,000 people have fled the conflict in South Sudan and entered Uganda in the past three weeks, averaging more than 4,000 a day, the United Nations announced Tuesday.

The violence that killed at least 300 people has subsided, but tensions are still running high in the capital and other parts of South Sudan, according to local media.

“In the past three weeks there have been more refugee arrivals in Uganda than in the entire first six months of 2016,” which was 33,838 people, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a statement.

Yesterday, an estimated 2,442 refugees were received in Uganda from South Sudan. More than 90 per cent of arrivals are women and children.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards reports daily arrivals into Uganda were averaging around 1,500 ten days ago, but have risen to over 4,000 in the past week.  He says the majority of arrivals are women and children.

“The new arrivals in Uganda are reporting ongoing fighting as well as looting by armed militias, burning down of homes and murders of civilians,” Mr. Edwards said. “Some of the women and children told us they were separated from their husbands or fathers by armed groups, who are reportedly forcibly recruiting men into their ranks and preventing them from crossing the border.”