A truck arrives in the city of Renk in South Sudan, laden with dozens of elderly people, women, and children whose weary faces betray the ordeal they endured while fleeing the conflict in Sudan.
These individuals are part of over half a million people who have crossed the border into South Sudan, a nation struggling to accommodate the influx of newcomers as refugee camps become increasingly congested.
Renk, situated merely 10 kilometers away from Sudan, has been near the conflict that erupted in April last year between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Since then, two United Nations (UN) transit centers in Renk have witnessed a continuous flow of Sudanese fleeing the war.
Fatima Mohammed, a 33-year-old teacher who escaped with her husband and five children from the central Sudanese city of El Obeid, described the journey as perilous.
“Bullets were entering our house. We were caught in the crossfire on our street, so we realized we had to leave for the sake of our children,” she said, describing the situation in Sudan as “unbearable.”
Since the onset of the conflict, 8 million Sudanese, half of them children, have been displaced.
A significant portion has sought refuge in neighboring countries, with about 560,000 heading to South Sudan, according to the United Nations.
The UN estimates that around 1,500 people arrive in the country each day. Many of them spend months in camps, hoping to eventually return home.
