German foreign minister demands more help for South Sudan refugees

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday called on the international community to provide more support for refugees in South Sudan.

She made the remarks while visiting South Sudan's Gorom refugee camp, which is home to refugees from Ethiopia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been swelled by people fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Sudan.

Gorom was set up in 2010 to accommodate 3,000 people from the strife-hit Ethiopian region of Gambella but by December was home to around 10,000 refugees.

"I appeal in particular to the states here in the region, to the Gulf states, not to look away from this humanitarian suffering, but to massively increase support for women and children here," she said.

Sudan has been gripped by conflict following a split between the army and a militia faction last year. South Sudan, already poor and itself affected by the conflict, is struggling with the influx.

"The war in Sudan is above all a war against women," Baerbock added, saying sexual violence and rape are systematically used as weapons of the conflict.

The women she spoke to in Gorom had "suffered the worst ordeals, had to watch their daughters being raped in front of them and lost their children while fleeing."

Earlier Baerbock received a briefing on the situation in South Sudan at the headquarters of the UN Blue Helmet mission in the East African country.

Baerbock was welcomed in the capital Juba by the deputy head of the military observation mission and longest-serving officer of the German part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Colonel Hans Peter Dorfmüller.

The UNMISS is currently the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world. It consists of some 13,000 Blue Helmet soldiers from 73 countries, about 1,500 police officers and aroung 2,600 civilians. Its main task is to protect returning refugees.

There are currently 14 German soldiers involved. The members of the German Armed Forces are deployed in the mission's command staff and as military observers.

It was only on Wednesday that the German Cabinet voted in favour of extending Germany's participation in UNMISS. The Bundestag still has to give its approval.

The UN mission emerged from a previous mission in Sudan when South Sudan declared independence in 2011 and is intended to support the peace process.

Earlier on Friday, members of Baerbock's delegation reported that the foreign minister will "travel on to Jordan following her trip to East Africa and hold political talks on the Middle East crisis there on Saturday."

Baerbock will meet with her Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, her office said.