Nearly 450 Nuba refugees from Kayga village in South Kordofan’s Kadugli Locality who had recently arrived to Yida camp in Unity State are reporting an acute shortage of food and other essential services.

UNHCR has designated the smaller Adjoung Thok camp, about 25 kilometres from Yida, as the settement site for new arrivals from the Nuba Mountains, and permits new arrivals to stay in Yida only while in transit. 

The UN refugee agency has been trying for more than two years to relocate refugees from Yida camp, which it considers to be too close to the border with Sudan, overly militarized, and overly large with approximately 78,000 people.

About 8,000 refugees have been settled at Adjoung Thok camp since its founding last year, but most of the long-time residents of Yida camp have not moved there.

In interviews on Thursday, the Kayga refugees rejected to be relocated, citing rampant insecurity at Adjuong Thok. They further blamed the UN refugee agency for denying them food and other services since they refused relocation to the new camp.

“We were expelled from the compound,” a refuge said. “We just live now by selling firewood and other manual work inside the camp,” he explained.

But also on Thursday about 250 refugees mostly from Kayga area left Yida camp heading to Adjoung Thok after the humanitarian situation became unbearable, according to the same source.

Meanwhile, the rest of the refugees currently living in Yida accused the UNHCR of withholding services so as to force more refugees to accept to go to Adjoung Thok camp.

In another development in the camp, police announced the arrest of some criminals in connection with the killing of a driver called Buluk Hassan last Tuesday night.

Photo: People from Kayga, Nuba Mountains, traveling between Jau and Yida, January 2014 (Radio Tamazuj)