Thousands of southern Sudanese fled into Kenya on Friday after Sudanese government forces captured a major rebel base that had served as a hub for international relief efforts, relief officials said.
Leading the human wave were 12,500 orphaned boys, who for the last four years have been on an odyssey from Sudan to Ethiopia, to Sudan again and now to Kenya, chased by war and famine.Two thousand boys had crossed the Kenyan border town of Lokichokkio by Friday morning, said Jacob Akol of the relief agency World Vision.
Panos Moumtzis, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Nairobi, said officials expected 25,000 to 30,000 Sudanese to cross into Kenya in the next few days.
Twenty-five international aid workers were evacuated from Kapoeta and nearby Narus on Thursday in advance of the attack on Kapoeta, said Thomas Ekvall of the U.N. program Operation Lifeline Sudan. The program coordinates relief efforts in Sudan's vast, impoverished south.
Kapoeta and Narus are about 30 miles north of Kenya's border.
Kapoeta was the second-most important stronghold of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army.