The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) [official website] has expressed alarm at the deteriorating condition of South Sudan’s security [official report] in light of the recent attacks carried out in the the town of Pajok. UNHCR said that homes have been looted by roving militia and the elderly and disabled who could not flee from the conflict were shot dead as ongoing fighting is also reported in the districts of Magwi and Oboo, which are close to the Ugandan border. It also reported Uganda has faced an influx of 6,000 refugees form South Sudan since just earlier this week, and more than 4,000 more South Sudanese are waiting at the Ugandan border for asylum. Uganda is now the main host of the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis because of the conflict roiling in South Sudan. According to Auma Lucy Yubuan, who escaped the fighting and was able to talk to UNHCR,

The soldiers were looting, breaking doors and beating people. They would arrest you and ask you to show them where the rebels are. But when you tell them you don’t know, they beat you. They killed people. I am so happy even though I have nothing to eat and I have lost everything, my children are alive. I was so scared I didn’t know if I would see them again. The bullets were flying everywhere and you couldn’t move, you had to lie on your belly. I am very grateful I am alive.

South Sudan has spent much of its brief history as a nation in civil war. Last month, the Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said [JURIST report] that there is a need to establish courts and bring prosecutions against those who have committed rights abuses throughout the nation’s conflicts. In January the UN Mission in South Sudan reported [JURIST report] that a violent period in July 2016 left hundreds of civilians dead. In December the UN Security Council failed [JURIST report] to pass an arms embargo against South Sudan. Two weeks earlier a UN spokesperson warned [JURIST report] that South Sudan “teeters on the brink of disaster.” The UN also said [JURIST report] in December that ethnic cleansing was occurring in South Sudan. In September the UN announced, and South Sudan accepted, an increase in UN peacekeeping forces [JURIST report] in the nation from 14,000 to 18,000 in an attempt to stop civilian killings, sexual assaults, and destruction of both public and private property [JURIST reports]. South Sudan was officially recognized [JURIST report] as an independent nation in July 2011.