15,000 people have been displaced over the past five weeks in Gbudwe and Amadi states due to fighting between the government and armed groups in the area, the UN Refugee agency has said.

It says about 500 of the displaced people flee into Uganda in a day.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson, Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva that that there has been sporadic gunfire in the areas.

“Sporadic gunfire is commonplace, and there has also been an increase in crime involving car-jackings, attacks on Government property, looting of civilian homes and sexual assaults reportedly by armed youth,” Edwards said.

“Overall, these are alarming developments for a region of South Sudan that has until now been relatively stable,” he added.

Mr. Edwards reported that a recent UN mission to Yambio found nearly 200 houses burnt down and several hundred others looted.

Last month, UNHCR reported that over 4,000 people in Gbudwe and Amadi States fled into a remote region of north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.