South Sudan returnees arrive in Bor on self-hired barge
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June 27, 2013 (BOR) - Hundreds of South Sudanese returnees who were
stranded in Upper state have completed a 12-day journey in a hired
barge from Juba to the Jonglei state capital, Bor.
JPEG - 33.3 kb
James Jok, the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) coordinator,
carrying a returnee child, while standing between the father and
mother in Bor, June 28, 2013 (ST)
The returnees told Sudan Tribune they opted to hire the barge after
they waited for too long for the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) and its partners to provide them transport.
The IOM says that it has helped at least 40,000 people return to the
south from Sudan since 2011, when the country split into two after
South Sudanese voted for secession.
At least 1.88 million returnees, according to IOM, have been
registered in South Sudan since 2007.
John Mabior Anyieth, one of the returnees who arrived on Friday told
Sudan Tribune that he was in Blue Nile state in August 2011 when
conflict broke out between the government and SPLM-North - the party
of the then state governor Malik Agar.
Agar was deposed and the SPLM-North has since formed a coalition with
the Darfur rebel groups.
Sudan has accused South Sudan’s ruling SPLM of continuing to support
their former colleagues north of the border and has closed many parts
of the border for much of the last two years.
The Blue Nile conflict forced Anyieth to flee to Renk in South Sudan’s
Upper Nile state, but was forced to wait over a year until he was able
to travel to Bor.
“It was actually difficult to get a barge through [the] IOM to take us
to our places”, he said.
Officials from South Sudan’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission
(SSRRC) in Bor county have received the returnees. Seven of the
households on the barge were identified as being from Jonglei state.
The RCC coordinator in Bor county, James Jok, said they would place a
request to the United Nations World Food Programme to provide the
returnees who were travelling to Juba with seven days food.
South Sudan’s ministry of health will provide them with medicine to
last them for the rest of the trip, he added.
“We want to make sure they have enough [food] and medicines that can
take them to Juba”, Jok said.
“The remaining families of Jonglei will be given necessary assistance
by Monday”, he added.
At least four million people are expected to face food insecurity in
South Sudan during this year’s rainy season, according to the UN’s
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Currently, WFP says, 2.9 million people in South Sudan are being
provided with food and livelihood assistance, including 670,000
refugees from the conflict in Sudan’s southern states and internally
displaced South Sudanese within the young nation.
(ST)
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