An evacuation order in the northern border town of Akobo East has forced tens of thousands of people — including all aid agency staff — to leave, closing critical humanitarian programmes for over 200,000 people and deepening already catastrophic conditions, Oxfam reports today. The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces issued the order on 6 March, requiring everyone to evacuate within four days. Oxfam South Sudan Country Director Shabnam Baloch called it “outrageous,” saying it has forced the closure of life-saving assistance in a town where families were already surviving on wild fruits and leaves from the bushes.
Akobo East, with more than 188,000 residents, had been sheltering an additional 82,000 people displaced by conflict in Jonglei State. With the evacuation order, many have been forced to flee again, facing secondary displacement and losing whatever little support and resources they had. Oxfam staff, including Project Manager Alfred Chandonga who himself fled, described scenes of families being pushed into the wilderness once more, with women and children carrying their lives on their backs and heading toward an uncertain future.
Most of the displaced have fled to Tergol, a key border crossing, and at least 37,000 have already crossed into the Gambella region of Ethiopia, where over 450,000 South Sudanese refugees are already hosted. Support there has become increasingly difficult as funding cuts force several organizations, including Oxfam, to scale down water and sanitation programmes just as needs are rising. Ethiopia faces its own overlapping crises, including conflict and drought, leaving households empty-handed.
The South Sudan 2026 humanitarian response plan projects that 10 million people — two-thirds of the population — will need assistance, with 7.5 million at risk of starvation. Oxfam is calling on all parties to de‑escalate the conflict, protect civilians, and guarantee humanitarian access, especially in Akobo county and along the Ethiopian border.
