GENEVA - The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that armed raids in a region of South Sudan plagued by ethnic clashes have forced around 30,000 civilians to flee their homes.
According to OCHA, armed men from Jonglei state, an eastern region beset by gun violence, attacked communities in nearby Greater Pibor Administrative Area, on 24 December. The violence followed clashes in South Sudan's far north that uprooted thousands in Upper Nile state last month.
According to Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, "People have suffered enough. Civilians, especially those most vulnerable - women, children, the elderly and the disabled bear the brunt of this prolonged crisis."
The clashes in Upper Nile state have also seen villagers seek shelter in swamps to escape the bloodshed, amid reports of civilians being raped, kidnapped or murdered. International partners, including the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the regional IGAD bloc, said in a joint statement Thursday that they were "gravely concerned" by the escalating violence.
They called on South Sudan's leaders to step-in, stressing "the need to investigate and hold accountable all perpetrators of the conflict, including those who are instigating and inciting violence."
