ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
The United Nations Refugee Agency has relocated tens of thousands of South Sudanese refugees camped in Ethopia’s Gambella region to save them from floods.
Suleiman Momodu, the agency’s Gambella spokesman, told Anadolu Agency over the phone on Monday that 47,038 South Sudanese refugees have been relocated from Nip Nip and Leichtor camps to the Jewi camp near the town of Gambella, a south western region in Ethiopia bordering South Sudan.
The plan was to relocate as many as 50,000 from the two flood-prone camps, Momodu said.
“The remaining will be transported to Jewi over the coming few days,” he added.
The refugee population in Ethiopia reached 689,107 by April 30, according to official data. The South Sudanese refugee population is the largest with 265,469 individuals (38.52%), followed by Somali 246,152 individuals (35.72%), Eritreans 135,655 individuals (19.69%) and Sudanese 36,478 individuals (5.29%).
About the recent escalation of civil war in South Sudan, which increased the influx of refugees, Momodu said: “In April and May alone, we have registered 10,000 refugees.”
The South Sudanese refugees camped at the two refugee sites of Leichtor and Nip Nip faced the risk of being flooded in the current rainy season, raising fears that their health situation would be exacerbated.
According to the World Food Program, South Sudan has now faced “the worst levels of food insecurity since independence in July 2011.
South Sudan has been shaken by violence since last December, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of standing behind an alleged coup attempt against his regime.
Tens of thousands were killed in the civil war that continued to this day in spite of an agreement the warring sides signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
