Some 413 civilians voluntarily moved on Monday from the Tomping camp in the South Sudanese capital of Juba to the UN House site, also in the capital, for shelter due to worsening conditions there, a UN spokesman said.

"The UN House site has been recently expanded," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a news briefing here. "Since relocation began on 12 March, more than 1,345 civilians have moved from Tomping to UN House," he said, citing the UN Mission in South Sudan.

"UN Peacekeepers provided protection to the civilians, as well as to the trucks that transported their belongings to UN House," he said.

UN Special Representative Hilde Johnson said last week that with the rainy season starting, conditions were becoming worse, with the sites in Tomping and Malakal, in particular, at imminent risk of epidemics, particularly cholera.

"Relocation of internally displaced people from these sites, therefore, has become a necessity," Haq said.

More than 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since mid-December, when violence erupted between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and fighters loosely allied to former Vice President Riek Machar. About 250,000 people have sought refuge in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and neighboring Sudan.