The local authorities in Maban County in Upper Nile State said they had received 834 people who returned to the county from a refugee camp in Ethiopia after it was attacked by one of belligerent forces in the Ethiopian conflict.

Moamen Khader, the acting commissioner of Maban County, told Radio Tamazuj Wednesday that 834 citizens, the majority of whom are women and children, returned to the county from the refugee camp in Ethiopia.

“The returnees from the Yabus area were transferred to the county headquarters and sheltered in schools,” Acting Commissioner Khader said. “Some of them live under trees and as a government we provided them with food aid in the form of corn and fish while Human Development Council (HDC) provided non-food aid.”

He urged the returnees to voluntarily return to their areas and villages of origin, noting that the county does not have the capacity to meet their accommodation requirements.

Thousands of citizens fled from Maban County to Ethiopia following the outbreak of the war in 2013.