Middle East

As South Sudan refugee flood continues, so do tales of abuse

Associated Press
Published | Updated

In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, two South Sudanese refugee boys carrying their belongings arrive at a refugee collection center in Palorinya, Uganda. More than 100,000 people have fled a single county in South Sudan in just three months as civil war continues amid warnings of genocide, and the surge of more than half a million South Sudanese refugees into Uganda since July has created Africa's largest refugee crisis. (AP Photo/Justin Lynch) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, young South Sudanese refugee boys stand inside a shelter at a refugee collection center in Palorinya, Uganda. More than 100,000 people have fled a single county in South Sudan in just three months as civil war continues amid warnings of genocide, and the surge of more than half a million South Sudanese refugees into Uganda since July has created Africa's largest refugee crisis. (AP Photo/Justin Lynch) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, a South Sudanese refugee woman sits with her child at a refugee collection center in Palorinya, Uganda. More than 100,000 people have fled a single county in South Sudan in just three months as civil war continues amid warnings of genocide, and the surge of more than half a million South Sudanese refugees into Uganda since July has created Africa's largest refugee crisis. (AP Photo/Justin Lynch) (The Associated Press)

More than 100,000 people have fled a single county in South Sudan in just three months as civil war continues amid warnings of genocide. The surge of more than half a million South Sudan refugees into Uganda since July has created Africa's largest refugee crisis.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters recently that when the refugees arrive from Kajo-Keji county they report killings of civilians, sexual violence and fears of arrest and abduction as their main reasons for fleeing.

Interviews with people from Kajo-Keji now living in the Palorinya refugee camp, and U.N. documents obtained by The Associated Press, describe multiple human rights violations committed by South Sudanese soldiers against civilians.