People are fleeing South Sudan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda, which has seen the greatest number of outflow, with 2,400 arrivals every day since early October and a quarter million new refugees since the re-eruption of violence in Juba that began on 7 July 2016.
UNHCR reports that most refugees are fleeing the Equatoria regions of South Sudan, which borders Uganda and is home to Juba. People leaving the region are reporting harassment by armed groups, killings and torture of people suspected of supporting opposing factions, villages set on fire, sexual assault of women and girls, and forced recruitment of young men and boys.
As armed groups have prevented people from using main roads, refugees in recent weeks are increasingly using informal border crossing points. Many have walked through the bush for days without food or water.
The Bidibidi refugee settlement in Uganda, opened only in August of this year, is now one of the largest refugee-hosting areas in the world and home to 170,000 South Sudanese refugees.
