UN alarmed by abduction and killing of refugees in South Sudan

The United Nations Refugee agency has expressed concerns over recent abduction and subsequent killing of refugees in South Sudan’s Yei River State.

The agency said in a press statement that the shooting and machete attack killed two people and wounded five refugees from Southern Kordofan in Sudan.

At least 32 more refugees, abducted since October 19 in Lasu settlement in Yei, remained in captivity in an unknown location, the agency said, while appealing to the abductors to release the 28 children and four women.

Food ration cards

“The armed group entered into the settlement site and asked refugees to present their food ration cards for food distribution mobilisation, allegedly on behalf of the United Nations before they kidnapped the 39, seven of who were released on November 5,” the agency says.

The agency added it was exerting effort to obtain details of the whereabouts of the 32 refugees ands their captors.

“This is not the first attack against refugees in Lasu settlement site. In September, armed men went on a looting spree in the camp, firing shots in the air, breaking into refugee homes and seizing food items, personal belongings and livestock, and destroying the medical clinic.

Dense forest

"This forced thousands of refugees to flee alongside the host community and seek safety in the surrounding dense forest areas,” the agency said.

Lasu settlement hosts over 10,000 refugees, mainly from the DR Congo and smaller numbers from Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR), according to UNHCR office in Juba.

The largest number

“UNHCR urges the government of South Sudan and the armed groups in the refugee hosting areas to respect human rights and take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of refugees, create a secure corridor for movement of displaced refugees and free movement of humanitarian actors to reach refugees with much-needed relief aid,” Mr Vincent Parker, the UNHCR deputy representative in South Sudan said.

South Sudan hosts a total of 260,453 refugees from DR Congo, CAR, Sudan and Ethiopia, but it also has the largest number of its people living as refugees in neighbouring countries, with the UN putting the figure at 1.2 million.