South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The government has encouraged the voluntary return of refugees in neighboring countries following recent aid cuts by the U.S government, which are vital for their welfare.
This came in the aftermath of the protest by South Sudanese refugees over scarcity of food and water in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya on March 3, 2025.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Albino Akol Atak, on Tuesday said they are putting in place plans to repatriate refugees from neighboring countries.
“Our responsibility is to call our people back, to encourage our people to come back to our country, and we already had a plan on this,” Akol told state broadcaster SSBC.
Akol assured the refugees of the government’s support to resettle them in their home areas.
“We call it a durable solution strategy and plan of action for refugees and IDPs, even the host communities, for them to be encouraged to come home. With this situation, the only thing that we can do is to call our people back,” he said.
“And by then we had already sent that message to our people. Please, if you are ready to come back, we will be facilitating that because this is their right. And that return must be a voluntary return. There is no way we can force them. But the reality is that the cut has already affected their livelihood,” Akol said.
Funding shortages, primarily due to reduced contributions from the United States—a major donor to refugee programs in Kenya—have significantly impacted humanitarian aid efforts.
The scarcity of essential resources has not only caused widespread hunger but has also led to heightened insecurity within Kakuma refugee camp.
“The problem is that those people were not informed. The beneficiaries in that camp were not properly informed of the cut in funding. This is why when they were faced with that reduction in rations, they were surprised, and then they had that reaction,” Akol said.
Akol said the government is ready to receive its citizens who fled to neighboring Kenya in search of protection and assistance following past conflicts.
“They wanted protection and they wanted assistance. If it is not there, now South Sudan is ready to receive them and this is what we have been doing,” he said.
Kakuma camp, which is the largest refugee camp in the region, hosts over 148,000 South Sudanese.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are about 4.5 million displaced people from South Sudan seeking refuge in Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
