Juba, May 16 (IANS): South Sudan has opened a new refugee camp in its northern region to receive people fleeing conflicts in neighbouring Sudan, a senior official said.

South Sudan has received a huge number of refugees and so they decided to allocate land for them to settle down, Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Albino Akol Atak told reporters here on Monday.

He said the government is coordinating with humanitarian partners on the ground to start relocating the refugees from the reception centre near the border with Sudan to the new refugee camp, Xinhua news agency reported.

UN agencies, including the UN Refugee Agency, are working to provide shelter for the refugees, the World Food Program is providing food assistance and the International Organisation for Migration is providing transport for them to the new camp, he added.

According to the Minister, South Sudan has received about 70,000 people since the conflict broke out in Sudan in April this year.

Akol said the new camp is in an area of 5 kilometre by 10 kilometre that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees who can as well practice small-scale agriculture for their livelihood.