(MENAFN- QNA) UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that some14000 South Sudanese, mostly women and children, have fled their country's civil war to Sudan in two weeks, according to media reports.
South Sudan witnessed a civil war in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his ex-deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, splitting the country along tribal and ethnic lines.
"In the last week we have an influx of about 7,000, and in the last two weeks about 14,000 arriving and that's considered an emergency within an emergency," said Ann Encontre, the UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for South Sudan..
More than 157,000 South Sudanese have fled to Sudan since the war started.
The influx has seriously strained UN agencies in the country, which are facing a severe funding shortfall.