By Maram Mazen

Thousands of Southern Sudanese people in Sudan’s north have been attacked by militias, harassed by local communities and endured “despicable conditions” as they await transportation to the south ahead of its independence on July 9, Refugees International said.

Among the Southern Sudanese trying to reach the south are about 17,000 who are crowded into 13 assembly points in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, without access to toilets or clean water, the Washington-based group, which assists displaced people in 22 countries, said today in an e-mailed statement.

“Southerners in the north are feeling increasingly discriminated against, which is undoubtedly putting pressure on people to get to the south,” Andrea Lari, director of regional programs for Refugees International, said in the statement. The organization called on the Southern Sudanese government to work with aid groups to urgently transport those southerners who are trying to return to the south, which they fled amid a civil war.

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