By William Madouk
As war rages in Sudan, nearly 70, 000 people have fled their homes and sought shelter in South Sudan, according to the latest update from the Humanitarian affairs ministry.
In a weekly briefing, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs & Disaster management, Albino Akol Atak, stated that majority of the war victims are returnees, refugees and other foreign nationals.
“The total figure of these people who have come as a result of the conflict in the Sudan since 17th April up to now, is estimated to be near 70,000 both refugees and returnees,” Atak said.
He said the total figure jumped from over 50 thousand people to close to 70 thousand because of some new entry points that were not included in the identified 12 points.
“We discovered that there are those entry points that are not covered, and this is why we witnessed crossing of these people,” he added.
Minister Atak also cited that they have visited Northern and Western Bahr El Ghazal states to assist humanitarian situations and see ways on how to address key challenges and possible instant needs.
They went to Kiir Adem in Aweil, which has the number of about 15,000 people refugees and returnees almost uniform in figure but according to him, yesterday the returnees number raised to 9,000.
“The situation we got there is very dire, the returnees and refugees are staying without shelters, and they are lacking foods, water and medications,” Atak noted.
“Our humanitarian partners are trying their best but because the number is big you cannot see the intervention,” he continued.
Atak said due to the big number of refugees in Aweil, they directed the state authority in Northern Bahr el Ghazal to allocate land as a refugee settlement afar from the border area.
“The area is near Aweil town. The place is in an area called Wadweil, it’s a very big land that was provided by the governor for those refugees to settle,” he said.
Atak also said that in Raja, Western Bahr El Ghazal, approximately 16,000 returnees with around 200 refugees who crossed into the country, easily integrated with the communities.