On Wednesday, a global charity said that violent clashes that erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan have forced more than 600,000 individuals into South Sudan since mid-April 2023.
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Save the Children said the individuals, including refugees and returnees, have arrived in South Sudan, which is already facing a severe hunger crisis, and the numbers continue to rise as the hostilities show no sign of abating.
Pornpun Rabiltossaporn, Save the Children's country director in South Sudan, said the needs were much greater than the support currently available. "We want to ensure that the children arriving here are protected, get the psychosocial support they need, and that unaccompanied girls and boys are reunited with their families as quickly as possible. But so much more needs to be done," Rabiltossaporn said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The charity said about 1,000 people a day are fleeing into South Sudan from Sudan after nearly one year of conflicts, arriving in scorching heat and with children in dire need of support.
It said most people arrive with nothing, having lost their homes and livelihoods. Some children have reported seeing loved ones, including their parents, killed en route. The majority have arrived at the border crossing of Joda in Upper Nile State by foot or on donkey carts, from where up to 200 people at a time are crammed into trucks with standing room only.
"They are taken to two overcrowded transit centers in nearby Renk, a two-hour journey on dirt tracks in temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius as South Sudan battles its worst heatwave in four years," the charity said.
The charity also said the individuals usually spend about two weeks in the centers, which house over 15,000 people, even though they were built for no more than 3,000, and have inadequate food, water and healthcare, and many sleep outside in makeshift shelters.
From there, 500 people at a time are packed onto barges for a two-day journey along the Nile to head to other destinations in South Sudan or packed into trucks for a 12-hour road trip to a refugee camp in Maban, the charity said.
For people fleeing the conflict in Sudan, however, life in South Sudan is a better option as about 1.75 million people have left Sudan, headed to South Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad, the Central African Republic and Egypt, according to the latest UN data.