UN: South Sudan refugees could soon hit one million

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In this photo taken Thursday, July 14, 2016 and released by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), South Sudanese people wait outside the UN camp in Juba, South Sudan. Some South Sudanese, even those with dual U.S. citizenship, are not being allowed to leave the country, even as the United States, India and other countries continued Thursday to evacuate their citizens while a fragile cease-fire appeared to hold. (Beatrice Mategwa/UNMISS via AP)

The number of South Sudanese refugees in East Africa could pass one million this year, the United Nations refugee agency said, calling on armed groups to allow safe passage for people fleeing the latest round of deadly violence according to an article in Al jazeera

Ann Encontre, a UN refugee coordinator in South Sudan, said on Friday there was concern about fresh outflows of refugees following clashes in the capital Juba, and appealed for $701 million in relief aid.

On Friday, the UN said at least 300 people had been killed in four days of intense gun battles, and 42,000 had fled the capital.

Even before the resurgence of violence in the past week, hundreds of thousands of refugees had been sheltering in Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and elsewhere since civil war began in December 2013.

William Spindler, spokesman for the UN refugee agency, said the number of refugees in neighbouring countries was now 835,000.

The recent violence in Juba echoed the fighting that triggered the civil war, marking a fresh blow to last year’s peace deal to end the bitter conflict, which began when President Salva Kiir accused ex-rebel leader and now Vice President Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

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Feature image courtesy AP

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