9 May 2017 10:08 am
DPA, 08th MAY, 2017- The civil war in South Sudan has forced more than 2 million children to flee their homes, two UN agencies said Monday. Children make up 62 per cent of the more than 1.8 million South Sudanese refugees who have arrived mainly in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan, according to the statement by the UN children’s fund UNICEF and the refugee agency UNHCR.
More than 1 million children have meanwhile been internally displaced.
“No refugee crisis today worries me more than South Sudan,” said Valentin Tapsoba, Africa director for UNHCR. “That refugee children are becoming the defining face of this emergency is incredibly troubling.”
South Sudan was plunged into a civil conflict when a split between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar escalated in December 2013. Tens of thousands have been killed
and 3.5 million displaced.