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People with disabilities and older people face greater risks of being caught in fighting and challenges in getting necessary humanitarian assistance in South Sudan, the Human Rights Watch has said.

In a report seen by Eye Radio, the Rights body says humanitarian aid workers often overlooked the needs of people with disabilities and older people.

The report calls on UN and aid agancies to ensure that people with disabilities and older people have access to humanitarian services on an equal basis without discrimination.

Last year, the Istanbul Humanitarian Forum, of the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, urges the United Nations and aid organizations to do more to accommodate the specific needs of people with disabilities and older people.

In a statement, the Rights group says in February and March 2017, it interviewed more than 45 people with disabilities and older people in displacement sites in Juba and Malakal, as well as in Panyijar County in the former Unity state, where the UN declared famine in two counties in February.

The Rights group says during this particular assessment, it also met with aid organizations and the South Sudan Human Rights Commission.

It says people with disabilities and older people have been targeted and abused by the warring parties in the country, often because of their inability to flee ahead of attacks.

Throughout the conflict, group says it documented numerous cases of people with disabilities and older people being shot, hacked to death, or burned alive in their houses by the attackers.