Torn Between Army And Rebels, S.Sudan Refugees Speak Out

YUMBE, Uganda, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2016 ) - South Sudanese refugees in Uganda have described being forced to flee soaring ethnic violence at the hands of the South Sudanese army while avoiding forced conscription into rebel forces.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the world's newest country since renewed fighting broke out in the South Sudanese capital in July following the collapse of a peace deal between the government and rebel forces.

In the western town of Yei, units of South Sudan's army are using machetes to kill people accused of joining armed rebel groups, according to those who have recently fled the region. "About two weeks ago, soldiers came to my brother Emmanuel's house at night and demanded that he open the door," said Abraham Aloro, a 20-year-old from a former tobacco plantation about two miles from Yei.

The town, which is 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Ugandan border, has been a flashpoint for clashes between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those of his former vice-president, ex-rebel Riek Machar, who is now in exile.

"They accused him of joining the rebels," said Aloro. "He hadn't but they cut him to death with pangas (machetes). We found his body in the morning. He was 24. "I ran with five friends. We were so scared.

We had to take shortcuts because the government soldiers are on the main roads but there are rebels in the bush." Aloro then made it to Kuluba Refugee Transit Centre in northern Uganda, about seven kilometres from the South Sudan border.

On average, around 2,400 new refugees arrive in Uganda from South Sudan daily, fleeing political violence that followed the collapse of a peace deal between Kiir and Machar inked in August last year that had raised hopes of peace. Some 330,000 have arrived so far this year.