South Sudan is hosting 613,710 refugees and asylum-seekers across 164,574 households in 29 locations nationwide as of January, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
In its latest report released on Thursday in Juba, the agency said the total includes 610,268 registered refugees and 3,442 asylum-seekers. Sudanese nationals constitute the overwhelming majority, accounting for 94 per cent, or 576,672 individuals.
They are followed by 14,677 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 6,599 from Ethiopia, 5,605 from the Central African Republic, 5,165 from Eritrea, and 1,550 from other nationalities.
The UNHCR noted that the South Sudanese government continues to grant prima facie refugee status to individuals fleeing the conflict in Sudan. Demographically, 49 per cent of the refugee population are females aged between 0 and 59, while women and children combined represent 75 per cent of the total caseload.
Among asylum-seekers, Ethiopians and Eritreans each make up 37 per cent, forming the two largest groups, followed by Burundians at 9 per cent, Ugandans at 7 per cent, and other nationalities accounting for the remaining 9 per cent.
Despite hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees, South Sudan remains central to one of the region’s most significant displacement crises.
More than 2.3 million South Sudanese are currently living as refugees in neighbouring countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, the agency said.