{{At least 300 refugees from Sudan\u2019s South Kordofan are crossing the border into Yida, South Sudan\u2019s largest refugee camp, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said.}}<\/p>\n
The influx of refugees, it says, calls for creation of new sites away from the \u201cvolatile\u201d border area where Yida, currently hosting an estimated 61,000 Sudanese refugees, is located. <\/p>\n
The move, it added, seeks to ensure the safety of the refugees and maintain the civilian character of the settlement.<\/p>\n
However, while a new site was chosen in South Sudan\u2019s Unity State for one such settlement, UNHCR says it plans to open other camps in the state in order to settle these people.<\/p>\n
About 20,000 people, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says, were in January displaced, following renewed fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement \u2013 North (SPLM-N), which intensified in October last year.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, over 67,000 displaced people, according to IOM and the government-initiated Voluntary Return and Resettlement Commission (VRRC), were registered in 13 localities of South Kodofan between January and November 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cIOM, in collaboration with the VRRC and with support from HAC [Humanitarian Aid Commission] in South Kordofan, is currently collating and verifying the number of returnees to South Kordofan following the October clashes,\u201d the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) says in its 21-27 January bulletin.<\/p>\n
In addition, VRRC say it estimates that over 160,000 people from South Kordofan remain displaced in neighbouring states within Sudan.<\/p>\n
Absence of a proper framework to provide overall guidance to planning and implementation of return assistance, IOM maintains, is a major setback to emergency assistance provision in South Kordofan.<\/p>\n
In a related development, amnesty international has expressed concerns over the plight of people facing the brunt of conflict in Sudan\u2019s conflict region.<\/p>\n
Alex Neve, the Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada, who visited South Kordofan, last week, said the bombings of innocent civilians in the region by Sudanese government forces violates international humanitarian law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is absolutely no doubt that this indefensible bombing campaign violates international humanitarian law \u2013 the repeated indiscriminate air attacks, as well as possibly direct attacks on civilians, by the Sudanese armed forces, constitute war crimes. So why does it attract so little international attention?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Neve, in an article published on Amnesty\u2019s global human rights blog, also wondered why the UN Security Council resolutions only \u201curge and encourage but do not condemn and deplore\u201d the negative things happening in South Kordofan.<\/p>\n
“The Sudanese government plays games with UN, African Union and other officials, promising that aid access will open up, but consistently failing to follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n
He describes the Sudanese government\u2019s \u201ccruel\u201d refusal to allow independent humanitarian access to this area as part of the tripartite arrangement, as an action \u201cbeyond measure\u201d.<\/p>\n
(ST)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{At least 300 refugees from Sudan\u2019s South Kordofan are crossing the border into Yida, South Sudan\u2019s largest refugee camp, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said.}} The influx of refugees, it says, calls for creation of new sites away from the \u201cvolatile\u201d border area where Yida, currently hosting an estimated 61,000 Sudanese refugees, is located. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-5564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5564"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=5564"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=5564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}