Officials beef up security in Yida Camp after violence
The attempt to improve security in Unity State’s Yida refugee camp follows an outbreak of fighting which left one police officer dead and forced more than 600 people to temporarily flee their improvised homes on Saturday.
Army Spokesman, Phlip Aguer said in a telephone interview that the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) had arrested five people in connection with the violence at the sprawling Yida camp, near the border with Sudan.
Whoever was responsible will be brought to book.”
Investigations are continuing. The SPLA will work with the security organs in Unity State to get to the bottom of this matter. Whoever was responsible will be brought to book,” Aguer said.
UNHCR, which runs the camp, said the refugees had now returned but expressed concern about the presence of armed people in the camp.
Fighting broke out between local police and a group of armed men in a corner of the settlement, according to Tim Irwin, UNHCR’s spokesman in South Sudan.
It lasted between 20 and 30 minutes and then the local police were able to bring it under control. But you can imagine those people living in the camp who were near by the fighting feared for their lives and they went to another area,” Irwin said during on a phone interview.
Irwin said the officer who was killed was caught in the crossfire, though it was still unclear who was involved in the fighting or why it started.
An eye witness blamed members of a Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement or JEM for starting the fighting. But JEM has since denied any involvement and called for the culprits to be apprehended and punished.
Under international treaties, refugees are not supposed to carry weapons. But Irwin says the size of Yida camp, which hosts close to 70,000 refugees, makes supervision difficult.
Those people living in the camp who were near by the fighting feared for their lives and they went to another area.”
Obviously we are not able to check every individual who comes in and out of the camp. Refugees are registered but it’s a large settlement and individuals are clearly able to enter and to leave,” he said.
Yida is currently home to 68,000 Sudanese refugees displaced from their homes by fighting between the Sudanese army and SPLM-North rebels in South Kordofan State.
Officials say they need to move the refugees because Yida is too close to the border and too dangerous.
In order to ensure security of the refugees at Yida, the UNHCR plans to relocate some of the refugees to a new settlement at Ajuong Thok in Unity State.
The new camp is about 25 kilometres from the border [and] I think that provides us with an adequate distance away from any border issues including insecurity,” Irin said.
Without giving specific numbers, Aguer said in the wake of the recent incident the army was being deployed to the Unity State police to screen whoever comes into the camp to ensure wrong elements do not come in.”
