Nuba Mountains refugees in South Sudan call for aid to resume

On Tuesday, hundreds of Sudanese refugees from the Nuba Mountains living at Yida camp in South Sudan held a protest in front of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) offices, protesting against the lack of food, water, and medicine for more than three months.

The then UN High Commissioner for Refugees (now UN Secretary-General) António Guterres speaks with a group of young women waiting to be registered at Yida refugee camp in South Sudan in 2012 (K. Mahoney/UNHCR)

On Tuesday, hundreds of Sudanese refugees from the Nuba Mountains living at Yida camp in South Sudan held a protest in front of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) offices, protesting against the lack of food, water, and medicine for more than three months.

The camp administration handed the UN a note demanding the resumption of food rations and running water wells, which have been suspended since October.

The refugees described the food cessation as “a weapon of starvation” to force them to move elsewhere.

They pointed to the spread of diseases and malnutrition, especially among children and the elderly, and gave the UN refugee organisation three days until Friday to respond to their demands.


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