AWEIL – Over 600 Sudanese refugees are stranded in dire conditions in Abyei, a disputed territory along the South Sudan-Sudan border, awaiting clearance from the UNHCR to enter South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, according to an official.
The refugees were en route to the Wadwil refugee settlement in South Sudan but were halted in Abyei after anti-Sudanese riots erupted in parts of South Sudan last month, triggered by the killing of South Sudanese citizens in Sudan’s Wad Madani.
Ajak Deng Miyen, chairperson of Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) in Abyei, told Sudans Post on Wednesday that the refugees have been in Abyei for a month, unable to cross into South Sudan.
“(The influx of refugees) has been continuing since early December. The refugees have been coming and they were supposed to be transferred last month in January to Aweil but due to the recent incident in Aweil and Juba in which attacks were made on Sudanese the UNHCR and the Commission for Refugees affairs extended the transfer,” Miyen said.
He described the refugees’ conditions as dire, lacking food, clean drinking water, and shelter, with many camping under trees.
“They have gone up to 600 now. They are being estimated according to UNHCR data and we are waiting for their transfer as the war rages it increases and is not specific,” he added. “The humanitarian situation for Abyei refugees is worse and dire, as Abyei is the entry point, so both the returnees and refugees are in need of humanitarian assistance. These refugees are camping under the trees.”
The UN estimates that over one million Sudanese refugees have fled the war since 2023.
