Arabic version: أضرار الحرب في أكوبو تثير مخاوف بشأن انتخابات جنوب السودان

According to Allafrica, thousands of people who fled fighting in Akobo, eastern South Sudan, are returning to a town where schools, health services and livelihoods have been severely damaged. The situation reflects a wider humanitarian emergency as the country prepares for its first elections.

Renewed fighting between government and opposition forces erupted across large parts of South Sudan last year, undermining the fragile peace agreement. Akobo was taken by the South Sudanese army in March and retaken by opposition forces in April. The town’s hospital was looted and damaged, while schools remain barely functional and food is scarce.

More than 100,000 people crossed into Ethiopia when the army advanced on Akobo, where the UN had estimated the town and surrounding villages had a population of around 270,000. The International Organization for Migration recorded 79,000 returnees in Akobo by the end of August, although current population estimates vary. Returnees described hunger, illness and a lack of shelter during displacement.

Humanitarian access has also been constrained. OCHA said in July that restrictions on moving cash, fuel and communications equipment into opposition territories were affecting essential assistance. The World Food Programme estimated that 7.8 million South Sudanese face high levels of acute food insecurity. In Akobo, residents said food assistance was insufficient and many households had lost farms, cattle and homes.

Observers cited in the report said conditions for free, fair and credible elections are absent while insecurity continues in Jonglei, Upper Nile and other states. There is no voter registration database, no census has been conducted, and opposition leaders remain under pressure. Edmund Yakani, a human rights defender, said the vote would not be allowed in opposition areas and perhaps not outside urban centres.