The United States is ending temporary protected status for citizens of
Sudan
as of 2018 but extending it for citizens of
South
Sudan
through mid-2019.
Temporary protected status allows nationals of certain countries, often facing armed conflict or major natural disasters, who are already in the United States to temporarily remain and work there.
Both
Sudan
and
South
Sudan's designations were due to expire on November 2.
Instead,
Sudanese nationals are allowed to stay legally for another year, but then must leave.
The Department of Homeland Security
urged them to use their remaining time to "prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States" or apply for other visa types allowing them to stay.
But acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke decided to extend
South
Sudan's TPS status until May 2, 2019, DHS said in a statement on Monday.
This is "because the ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions" that prompted the 2016 decision to grant the status to
South
Sudanese have persisted.
South
Sudan
was the world's youngest country when it became independent from neighbouring
Sudan
in 2011 following decades of conflict.
But the new nation dissolved into civil war less than two years later, after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer.
Since then tens of thousands have died, and 3.5 million of the country's 12 million citizens have fled their homes, creating Africa's largest refugee crisis since Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Syria and Yemen are the other countries whose nationals can qualify for temporary protected status in the United States.