After enduring years of fighting and food shortages, it was the
deaths from hunger of many old women and children that finally made
Rebecca James decide to flee South Sudan.Tired and hungry, James is among hundreds of South Sudanese refugees mostly women and children gathered at a "Refugee Waiting Centre" in Al-Eligat area along the border in Sudan's White Nile state.
The centre hosts refugees fleeing famine and fighting in South Sudan and later transports them to permanent camps in several areas of Sudan.
"For two days I didn't stop running until I reached the border," said James, who comes from South Sudan's Unity State where officials last week declared a state of famine.
The 35-year-old crossed into Sudan with her children two days ago, she told AFP on Monday at the centre some nine kilometres from the Sudan-South Sudan border.
"On my way I saw many old women starving to death and young men shot dead in fighting," said James, wearing traditional South Sudanese dress.
Several of her relatives had also died "because of hunger or in fighting," she said.
South Sudan, the world's youngest nation formed after splitting from the north in 2011, has declared famine in parts of Unity State, saying 100 000 people face starvation and another million are on the brink of famine.