Civilians disembark from a truck upon arrival in Renk County of Upper Nile State. | Photo: Courtesy.

Authorities in areas bordering Sudan are reporting an influx of South Sudanese and foreign nationals fleeing the fighting in the northern neighborhood.

The boundary separating South Sudan from Sudan extends for approximately 1,240 miles from the Central African Republic in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

In Renk County of Upper Nile, the Commissioner said more than 9,000 South Sudanese returnees including refugees from the region arrived in the area over the weekend.

According to Kak Padiet, about 6,000 people mainly women and children arrived on Saturday and 3,000 on Sunday.

“Most of the returnees are women and children, and we are suffering from bad humanitarian conditions. We transfer the returnees and settle them at Upper Nile University,” Padiet told Eye Radio.

He added: “This crisis and these numbers are greater than the capacity of the county and even the state.”

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Aweil East County in Northern Bahr el Ghazal reported that dozens of South Sudanese arrived in the area on Sunday.

“Yesterday (Sunday), one truck arrived at Majok with some civilians and the track may carry between 20 to 30 people, nothing so far except that we are closely monitoring the border to see whether some returnees are coming and what we can do them,” he said.

According to the International Organization for Immigration, Sudan houses 800,000 South Sudanese refugees out of whom only 300,000 are registered.

The country which is now in turmoil also hosts 10,000s unregistered migrants from South Sudan.

The returnees are fleeing days of fierce streets battle in Khartoum and other towns as fighting eased briefly following a false sense of ceasefire between the warring parties on Saturday.

In Western Bahr el Ghazal State, over 350 South Sudanese arrived in Boro Madina from the Darfu region in Sudan.

Most of them are the civilians that fled the second cycle of South Sudan’s civil war in 2016.

Gismallah Hassan Dahia, the Press Secretary of Raja County in Western Bahr el Ghazal State said the civilians who fled to Darfur are now returning home with nothing to start with.

“But they still did not get anything in terms of shelter, despite that it was raining since yesterday till this morning,” Hassan said.

“They have returned together with Chief Ali Mohamed Saed, they have registered them, but they did not get anything even a jug, my message is that let’s help those South Sudanese who are in Sudan to return because the situation there is not good.”

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Immigration says over 2500 people including 20 Somalian students and some Sudanese arrived in Renk County of Upper Nile late on Sunday.

Peter Van der Auweraert, the Acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator and IOM’s Country Representative says that the agency and South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission are providing support to the returnees and refugees.

“Last night around 2500 people from Sudan in Khartoum in Renk of upper Nile state most of these people 90% of these 2500 are South Sudanese,” he said.

“These are people addressed as refugees and migrants living in Khartoum and 5% are Sudanese who seeks refuge in South Sudan and the remains about 20 Somalia student who was a student in Sudan RRC, IOM, and UNIHR at the entrance point for providing support to these people.”

He said the number is expected to increase as the war in Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) entered the second week.

Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded since the fighting erupted last Saturday.

Foreign governments including European countries, Japan, and the US are evacuating their nationals from Khartoum amid ongoing street fighting.