Over 7,000 returnees’ arrival overwhelms the existing healthcare conditions in Raja county.
NCMP
January 25, 2022
According to the county commissioner, almost 7,000 Sudanese returnees in Raja County are in desperate need of humanitarian help.
According to Salah Momiji Mamiri, the most vulnerable are women, children, and the elderly, who need food, clean drinking water, medication, and shelter.
He said that they had registered at least 120 houses in Raja town and Boromedina Payam, as well as over 6,000 more in Kafiagenje Payam, with daily arrivals.
“I request that humanitarian groups aid the returnees.” They lack everything necessary for existence, and county officials are unable to help them at this time,” Mr. Mamiri said.
The arrival of returnees overwhelms the county’s current healthcare circumstances, implying that the county must react to the breakout of illnesses as soon as possible.
Mr. Mamiri stated that the hospital currently has no medication, which is why I am asking the national government and NGOs in South Sudan to give us medicine. There are only three medical workers, and we need more since the population is growing by the day.
He said that the majority of Sudanese refugees who evacuated Raja County years ago due to violence have indicated a desire to return ahead of the rain season to prepare land for farming, but lack transportation.
“The refugees in Sudan are appealing to the national governments of South Sudan and Sudan, as well as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to return them home so that they can begin the rainy season,” he added.
“There is peace in the land, and these individuals have the right to return; if they are ready to return freely, we must aid them.” “We urge the national government to respond to their plea and work with IOM to take them back home,” Mamiri added.
Despite the country’s various issues, South Sudan has also become a safe haven for refugees from neighboring nations. A total of 300,000 refugees are being housed in the nation, in addition to millions more South Sudanese refugees residing in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Central African Republic.
As of September 2021, there were 786, 524 South Sudanese registered refugees in neighboring Sudan, the majority of them left Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and the Unity States.
