South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday appealed for 1.4 billion U.S dollars to support nearly 2.6 million people in five countries neighbouring Sudan, including South Sudan.
Half of Sudan’s population – around 25 million people – need humanitarian assistance and protection, while more than 1.5 million people have fled to South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, and Ethiopia since the conflict broke out 10 months.
The UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, Raouf Mazou, who is in South Sudan for an official visit from 5-7 February 2024 said that they expect the arrival of possibly another 500,000 people, that will basically double the number of people who have already arrived in South Sudan.
“So you see how dramatic it is and we need to have the support from the international community humanitarian support,” Mazou said.
He said that the 1.4 billion dollars is urgently needed to respond to the needs of about 2.6 million people globally that includes the 500,000 people who arrived in South Sudan.
“In each of the countries in the region, whether it is Chad, whether it is Egypt, whether it is Ethiopia, there are also program activities. So globally, that will mean about 82 partners who are going to be involved in that response,” Mazou said.
He noted that 400 million dollars out of the 1.4 billion dollar budget will go to South Sudan.
Mazou said that the partnership with development actors has started and they have an important partnership with the World Bank in South Sudan focusing on infrastructure and supporting the integration of thousands of returnees who fled conflict in Sudan since April15 last year.
“South Sudan is one of the countries which has been the most affected by forced displacement .I mean, even before this crisis, South Sudan is a country which was receiving more than 300,000 refugees, mainly from Sudan. And what we’ve seen since mid-April last year is the arrival of 400,000 South Sudanese back in their country and more than 100,000 Sudanese refugees coming. So you imagine what it means for a country which has had its own challenges,” he said.
“We are very fortunate that South Sudan has been a very welcoming country, welcoming to refugees, but also welcoming to some of the South Sudanese who have been coming back, some of them were born in Sudan, have made their lives there, but South Sudan said these are our citizens. They have the right to come back, and we are going to try and provide them with all the support that they require,” Mazou disclosed.
He said that returnees do not only require initial humanitarian support but also need assistance in rebuilding their livelihoods.
In addition, Mazou said that they are expecting another 500,000 people to arrive in the country.
Sudan descended into conflict on April 15, 2023 following disagreement between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the timeline for integration of the latter into the national army.
