Geneva – At least 18 people have died and more than 90 wounded at a refugee camp in South Sudan after ethnic clashes broke out at the UN facility, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.
The UNHCR spokesman, Andreas Needham, told reporters in Geneva, that some 26,000 people have reportedly fled the camp, since the fighting between ethnic Dinka and Shilluk broke out Wednesday in the camp in Malakal.
He said shots were fired in the camp of people displaced from their homes within South Sudan after the Sudanese army entered on Thursday, he said.
“Humanitarian partners on the ground reported shooting, looting of property and burning of houses,” he said.
He added that though the fighting had subsided, but that there were still some gunshots on Friday morning.
“When fighting broke out between displaced Shilluk and Dinka youths in the camp, UN forces immediately intervened.
“But men reportedly wearing government army uniforms also fired into the camp.
“UN troops exchanged fire with them and eventually pushed them outside of the UN compound,” the UN mission to South Sudan said in a statement.
Among the 18 people that died there were two staff of the international medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF), who were attacked in their shelters, the organization said in a statement.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560”]
Three hours of fighting forced about 600 people to seek safety inside the MSF hospital, it added.
The camp that had housed nearly 48,000 people has been heavily damaged. UNHCR has been unable to verify how many people have really fled.
MSF representative Marcus Bachmann demanded that “armed groups stop these actions,” while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reminded “all concerned, including government security forces, of the inviolability of the United Nations compounds.” (dpa/NAN)
- Latest
- Trending
