Sudan civil war one year on: How the conflict is fuelling a refugee crisis in neighbouring South Sudan

The civil war in Sudan began a year ago

Refugees who have fled from the war in Sudan line up during a cash assistance programme at a transit centre for refugees in South Sudan earlier this year.

When Shede Ajak Rashid’s two brothers were killed in the conflict in Sudan, she made the decision to flee over the border into neighbouring South Sudan, with nothing but the clothes on her back.

Ms Rashid, 35, is now living at the Wedweil Refugee Camp, near Arweil in northern South Sudan, with her youngest daughter and her granddaughter, both aged six.

She is one of an estimated 600,000 refugees in South Sudan from the civil war in Sudan, which began a year ago and has seen around 6.5 million people displaced from their homes.

"We couldn’t eat, drink or live,” she says of her life in Sudan, where homes were bombed and around 15,000 people killed and 33,000 more injured after war broke out between the nation's regular army and paramilitary force the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last April.

Daniel Ayuen is programme manager for Christian Aid’s local partner SAADO, Smile Again Africa Development Organisation, which is distributing aid provided by the Scottish Government in a £250,000 funding package handed out earlier this month to help those fleeing the conflict.

Christian Aid received £125,000 of funding for a cash distribution programme to allow refugees to buy essential food and supplies, while Oxfam is using its funding to help provide clean water supplies to refugees in Ethiopia, where there are over 385,000 South Sudanese people who have left since the conflict began.

“The refugees and their stories are very disturbing,” says Mr Ayuen. “The kind of journeys they took from devastating war all the way to South Sudan. It took them quite a number of days.

"They’ve been through a lot. And there’s a lot that’s playing in their mind. You see when they’re coming into South Sudan, they are seeking refuge and better opportunities for them, in terms of services that they get.”

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Mr Ayuen, who himself grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya, says sharing his own story gives people hope for the future.

"I was born and raised a refugee,” he says. “I always say this, because I was born in Kakuma refugee camp. That’s where I spent most of my childhood, so I really understand what these people go through. I understand their stories and the problems because I’ve lived these problems myself.

“It helps me connect with them very easily because I tell them my story also and that tomorrow might be a better day. It’s not a permanent situation.”

Christian Aid’s local partners are also using existing safe spaces within the Wedweil camp to carry out awareness raising on domestic and sexual violence and on early marriage to 3,000 people, as well as to facilitate access to referral services for women and girls who have experienced sexual violence and to help reunite families which have become separated.

James Wani, country director for South Sudan, says children are arriving at the camp from Sudan in a state of malnutrition. It is estimated 60 per cent of people in Sudan are facing acute food security.

More than 3,000 people have arrived at the camp in the past month alone due to increased fighting in the northern Darfur region, swelling the number now living there to 10,500.

"Lately the conflict has expanded and the fighting is getting closer to some of the border towns in south and east, which has caused an increasing number of people crossing into South Sudan,” says Mr Wani, adding that experts are expecting the fighting to intensify in the coming weeks as soldiers want to make the most of the remaining dry season before heavy rains begin, making combat more difficult.

Mr Wani says Sudanese people had been hopeful of a more prosperous future before the war began.

"All hell broke loose in Sudan a year ago,” he says. “It had been on a trajectory towards transition to democracy and there was a lot of optimism. The that positive outlook was just shattered when the first bullet was fired on 15 April.”

Some of the refugees who have arrived in South Sudan were originally South Sudanese people who had fled to Sudan when their native country was in conflict from 2013 to 2016. These returnees are now struggling to adapt to life in their home country.

"The living conditions in Sudan, compared to South Sudan, were much better in terms of their access to electricity, food and they had some form of income. So when this conflict broke, they're now back in a refugee setting in a country which is which is facing humanitarian crisis of its own. So the situation is quite desperate.”

Earlier this week, Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner of the United Nations, warned that the refugee crisis was likely to continue to increase.

"If there is no ceasefire; if there are no serious attempts at peace by the parties and their supporters; no significant funding for the response; no improvement on safe humanitarian access including across borders and frontlines, no matter how persistent and courageous the work of humanitarian agencies will continue to be, the huge number of those in need of aid will increase, and those displaced inside Sudan will be tomorrow’s refugees,” he said.

"The generosity of Sudan’s neighbours must not be taken for granted. But international commitments, we have heard it many times, are falling short.”

The UK Government this week imposed sanctions on three businesses with links to different factions in Sudan’s civil war.

However, legal experts have claimed the impact of the sanctions is “limited".

Rob Dalling, partner at Jenner & Block, said: “As with the latest asset freezes targeted at specific individuals and companies related to China, the latest sanctions announced on three businesses related to the Sudan war are likely to be more bark than bite. The impact is limited, mainly serving political motives, with only a handful of targets affected by frozen assets, temporarily halting their financial activities in the UK.”