UN raises alarm over Sudan’s air attack in South

Sudan air force on Monday bombed Elfoj refugee camp in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state, leaving 14 civilians missing and injuring another, the UN said on Tuesday, raising the already high tensions between the two countries.

“The aerial bombing occurred just after 10am local time in Elfoj in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state,” the UN High Commissioner for refugees said in a statement.

“It was carried out in two instances with several bombs falling at the refugee transit site, located less than 10km from the border with Sudan,” the statement read.

“At the time of the incident,” the UN agency said, “about 5,000 refugees were at the site from where movements to new settlements take place on a daily basis.”

“UNHCR and IOM teams with 14 trucks were supervising relocation operations when the first bombings took place. Refugees jumped out of the trucks. Agency staff had to seek safety,” the agency said.

“UNHCR is alarmed by this attack on vulnerable refugees already fleeing violence in Sudan’s Blue Nile state,” it added.

The agency has so far relocated 11,477 refugees to safer locations 70 km away from the border since January.

The bombing is days after South Sudan announced it is shutting down the pipeline that runs through the Sudan to the export terminal at Port Sudan in response to continuous oil theft by Khartoum.

It is also the latest in a serious of aerial bombings that violated the sovereignty of the Africa’s infant nation since independence last July.

Last November, New Gufa, an entry point for refugees in Maban County in Upper Nile state was bombed over several days leading to death of scores, with the Sudan claiming the camps hosted rebels.