LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Human Rights Watch reported in April that civilians suffered from an indiscriminate aerial bombing campaign.

An emergency coordinator with Medicines Sans Frontiers Voitek Asztabski says that some refugees died as they walked seven to 10 hours to a new site in search of water after camp Kilometer 48 in South Sudan's Upper Nile state ran dry last week.

The agency has been monitoring the mortality rates of adults and children and from what causes. The agency estimates that an average of five to 10 people have died at Kilometer 48 camp each day after water sources were depleted.

The agency "the 15,000 refugees remaining at this location walked en masse the 25 kilometers to the nearest location with available water."

"We observed people dying of thirst, of dehydration," Asztabski said by satellite phone from camp Kilometer 18. "That was quite a horrifying activity being witnessed by us here." Many of the refugees are too weak to respond to medical care.

"We went early on Tuesday morning to provide medical assistance and rehydration points along the route," MSF's Dr. Erna Rijnierse said in a statement.

"It was a truly shocking sight as we witnessed some of the weakest dying as they walked - too dehydrated for even the most urgent medical care to save them."

There are now 105,000 Sudanese refugees from Blue Nile state in South Sudan's Upper Nile state, and another 15,000 are on their way.

Refugees have arrived malnourished, dehydrated and diseased after walking from their homes in Blue Nile. Common conditions include pneumonia and other respiratory infections contracted from sleeping outdoors without any shelter, as well as diarrhea from drinking contaminated water.

There is no plan for what to do after water runs out at camp Kilometer 18, which will likely happen in about two and a half weeks.

Agencies have long warned that refugees needed to be relocated before potable water ran out and the rainy season began, making transport extremely difficult. Andrew Omale, an emergency coordinator with Oxfam International, said in March that the refugee situation in Upper Nile was a "forgotten emergency" and called for more support.

A version of this story was first published by Inter Press Service news agency.

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