At least 50,000 people have been displaced in South Sudan since February as clashes between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar escalate in the country’s northwest, a United Nations agency reported on Tuesday.
Tensions have been rising in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, where rival factions aligned with Kiir and Machar have been battling, threatening to unravel a fragile power-sharing agreement.
“The violence is putting already vulnerable communities at greater risk and forcing the suspension of life-saving services,” Anita Kiki Gbeho, an official with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in South Sudan, said in a statement.
The situation worsened on Monday when a South Sudanese government airstrike hit Nasir County, killing at least 20 people, including children, according to area commissioner James Gatluak, who spoke with AFP.
OCHA reported that 10,000 of the displaced had fled across the border into Ethiopia. The violence also forced 23 humanitarian workers to leave the area, while a cholera treatment unit in Nasir was shut down due to the instability.
“I urge all actors to allow humanitarians to safely reach those in need, especially women, children and the elderly,” Gbeho stated.
The crisis adds further strain to South Sudan’s humanitarian situation. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recently reported 1,300 cholera cases in Akobo County, also located in the Upper Nile region.
The renewed fighting jeopardises the 2018 peace agreement between Kiir and Machar, who previously led opposing sides in a brutal five-year civil war that left 400,000 people dead.
Kiir’s supporters have accused Machar’s forces of stoking unrest in Nasir County in alliance with the White Army, a loosely organised group of armed youths from Machar’s Nuer ethnic community.
Tensions escalated further this month when an estimated 6,000 White Army fighters overran a military encampment in Nasir. A subsequent rescue attempt by the United Nations ended in tragedy, resulting in the deaths of a UN helicopter pilot, a senior South Sudanese general, and several others.
