ICRC concern over situation in South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Communities affected by the conflict in the Sudanese region are "immensely vulnerable," and ICRC delegate said from South Sudan's capital.

South Sudan became an independent nation in July as part of a 2005 peace agreement. That deal ended Sudan's bloody civil war, though border conflicts and disputes over oil threaten to unravel the peace agreement.

Michela Telatin, head of the delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said from Juba that lingering violence was a handicap to an independent South Sudan.

"Communities affected by conflict are immensely vulnerable," said Telatin in a statement.

The ICRC said border conflicts resulted in "hundreds of casualties" this year and security is complicated by attacks from armed groups in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.

A U.N. human rights official said last week that about 75 people were killed, mostly with machetes, during a raid in Warrap state of South Sudan. Around 70,000 cattle were looted by people from the neighboring South Sudanese state of Unity.

Human rights officials have warned that the situation in South Sudan is one step from a major humanitarian catastrophe.