"Refugee families fleeing to neighboring countries in search of shelter
and safety are facing a double catastrophe this rainy season, with
children most at risk from the health and protection risks associated
with inadequate shelter," the UN agencies said in a joint statement.
by Jonglei Times Senior correspondent in Juba
JUBA, May 8, 2017 (Jonglei Times) --Two UN agencies said Monday that over 1 million
children have fled South Sudan due to escalating armed conflict,
China's Xinhua News Agency, says.
Latest figures by UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Refugee Agency
(UNHCR) show that children make up 62 percent of the more than 1.8
million refugees from South Sudan and that most have arrived in Uganda,
Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan.
"Refugee families fleeing to neighboring countries in search of shelter
and safety are facing a double catastrophe this rainy season, with
children most at risk from the health and protection risks associated
with inadequate shelter," the UN agencies said in a joint statement.
The agencies said children remain at risk of recruitment by armed forces
and groups and, with traditional social structures damaged, are also
increasingly vulnerable to violence, sexual abuse and exploitation.
South Sudan has faced ongoing challenges since a political face-off
between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar erupted into
full-blown conflict in December 2013. The crisis has produced one of the
world's worst displacement situations with immense suffering for
civilians.
Despite the August 2015 peace agreement that formally ended the war,
conflict and instability have also spread to previously unaffected areas
in the Greater Equatoria and Greater Bahr-El-Ghazal regions of South
Sudan.
The UN agencies said over 75,000 refugee children in Uganda, Kenya,
Ethiopia, Sudan and DR Congo have crossed South Sudan's borders either
unaccompanied or separated from their families.
UNICEF's Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Leila Pakkala
said the shocking fact that nearly one in five children in South Sudan
has been forced to flee their home illustrates how devastating this
conflict has been for the country's most vulnerable.
The UN agencies said over 1,000 children have been killed or injured
since the conflict first erupted in 2013 in South Sudan, while an
estimated 1.14 million children have been internally displaced.
Nearly three quarters of the country's children are out of school, the
highest proportion of out-of-school children in the world, the agencies
said.
Valentin Tapsoba, UNHCR's Africa Bureau Director, said the humanitarian
community need most urgent, committed and sustainable support to be able
to save their lives.
"No refugee crisis today worries me more than South Sudan. That refugee
children are becoming the defining face of this emergency is incredibly
troubling," Tapsoba said
The UN agencies said the trauma, physical upheaval, fear and stress
experienced by so many children account for just part of toll the crisis
is exacting.
"Much greater support is needed to ensure that every refugee family has
somewhere safe to live, as well as urgent humanitarian assistance
including food, water, protection, education and medical care," the
agencies said.
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