By Hou Akot Hou
A six-year-old returnee child died over the weekend in Aweil East County headquarters, Mabil, reportedly due to dire conditions.
The baby boy identified as Diing Kuac Garang was purported to have suffered from diarrhea until he succumbed to the illness.
One of the youths in the area, Garang Johnson, said the mother of the deceased was lying on the floor with other children on their arrival from Aweil Town on the process of integration.
“They are in the county headquarters lying on the floor. Neither the government nor other actors like aid agencies have done anything to these people,” he said.
Johnson said that majority of the returnees who fled from Sudan and were brought to Aweil, say they could not locate or know their relatives in the county.
He maintained that some of the returnees just go and work in the fields of the host communities for survival.
The boy is said to have been buried in the house of one of the host community members at Mabil in Wanyjok of Aweil East County, as the returnees are in high desperation for housing and food.
The youth have turned to social media to slam authorities for not doing enough to the returnees, who spent weeks lying under mahogany treat the headquarters, pleading for assistance.
Wanyjok Diocese Bishop of the Episcopal Church posted after the death of the child that his local organization known as CIRDA had visited these returnees last week.
He said they were coordinating with partners and authorities to look into the plight of dozens of returnees.
Attempts to reach the county Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) office for comments on the dire condition of the returnees were fruitless as their known contacts could not be accessed.