U.N. Expands Refugee Camp in Kenya as S. Sudan Conflict Rages

[sudan]

Kakuma camp in northern Kenya is expanding by nearly a half, the U.N. refugee agency said on Saturday, to house refugees fleeing nearby South Sudan as hopes fade for peace in the world's newest nation.
The arrival of some 44,000 South Sudanese refugees since late 2013, when fighting broke out between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels allied with former Vice President Riek Machar, has stretched the camp to its limits.
"Before the resumption of the current crisis, what we hoped was that the camp would shut. But what we've seen, since December 2013, is actually the contrary," said Raouf Mazou, the U.N. refugee agency's Kenya representative.
Kakuma is home to some 185,000 people, mostly from South Sudan, and with the planned expansion it will soon accommodate up to 80,000 more. The extra space will help ease congestion as well as make room for new arrivals.
The sprawling Kakuma camp was set up in Kenya's arid Turkana County in 1992 to accommodate thousands of "Lost Boys" who fled the southern part of what was then Sudan and walked hundreds of miles to Kenya.
A 2005 peace deal paved the way for South Sudan's 2011 independence and the United Nations launched a repatriation programme. By 2008, officials contemplated the camp's closure.
But the crisis involving long-time rivals Kiir and Machar has led to fierce fighting along ethnic lines: Kiir is an ethnic Dinka and Machar is Nuer.
Thousands have been killed and more than 1.5 million people have been displaced, while another 500,000 have fled to neighbouring countries, especially Ethiopia and Uganda, the United Nations has said.
"Nobody thinks that they can go back," said Andrew Riek Wal, 24, who lived in Kakuma for a decade before returning home in 2011, only to come back to the camp in 2013. "I am very worried about going back because I may be killed."
During his brief return, Wal got a job teaching English in the capital Juba and began searching for family members. But when fighting resumed, he feared he was especially vulnerable.
Because he had spent his adolescence in Kakuma, he was never given the distinctive horizontal forehead marks that distinguish Nuer men, and he feared he would be mistaken for a Dinka.
"Living this life of a refugee, it seems like I am in prison," he said.

 

[ScienceRocks]

As long as none of them come here...We don't need a single extra ******!

 

[waltky]

South Sudan civil war refugees reach one million mark...

South Sudan refugees reach one million mark
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 - The number of people who have fled South Sudan because of the country's civil war has passed the one million mark, the UN refugee agency says.

Fighting that broke out in the capital, Juba, in July is responsible for the latest surge in those fleeing, it says. More than 1.6 million people are also displaced within South Sudan, meaning about 20% of the population have been made homeless since December 2013. A fragile peace deal signed last year is on the brink of collapse. "The violence in July came as a major setback to peace efforts in South Sudan," the UNHCR spokesman Leo Dobbs said in a statement.

The UN says more than 185,000 people have fled South Sudan since July. "The fighting has shattered hopes for a real breakthrough and triggered new waves of displacement and suffering, while humanitarian organisations are finding it very difficult for logistical, security and funding reasons to provide urgent protection and assistance to the hundreds of thousands in need," Mr Dobbs said.

A woman from South Sudan holds a child on her knees as she sits inside a make-shift camp at Nimule border, in Amuru Distric in Uganda​

South Sudan refugees:

* Uganda: 373,626 - more than a third of these have arrived since July; 20,000 over last week. New arrivals report fighting in south, attacks on civilians by armed groups, who loot, sexually assault women and girls and recruit boys
* Ethiopia: 292,000 - 11,000 crossed into Gambella over the past week. New arrivals are from the Nuer group, including 500 children travelling alone, fearing renewed conflict after seeing troop movements
* Sudan: 247,317 - 1,800 arriving each month in White Nile state, floods preventing others
Kenya: 90,000 - 300 a week fleeing insecurity, economic instability and drought
* DR Congo: 40,000 - current influx to Ituri province.

Many of the refugees arriving in Uganda, which hosts the most South Sudanese, are "exhausted after days walking in the bush and going without food or water. Many children have lost one or both of their parents", the UNHCR says. A fall-out between President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Machar - the most powerful members of their respective Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups - led to the civil war which erupted in December 2013. They only agreed to settle their differences under intense international pressure, signing a peace deal in August 2015 - and Mr Machar returned to Juba as vice-president in a unity government in April. But battles then broke out between his bodyguards and presidential guards three months later, prompting him to flee.

Another member of his party has been appointed as vice-president, a move Mr Machar does not recognise. Earlier this week, a report funded by George Clooney accused both Mr Kiir and Mr Machar, as well as their officials, of personally profiting from the war. Both men have denied the allegations. The UN wants to deploy a 4,000-strong regional protection force for Juba which would have a more robust mandate than the 12,000 UN soldiers already in the country, however the mandate and size of the force still have to be agreed.

More on South Sudan's crisis: