By Yang Ater Yang
Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) in Lakes State starts registering Sudanese refugees and South Sudanese returnees.
The process started in Rumbek on Thursday.
The state RRC chairperson Dut Malual Chahoch said theey have set up a gathering point in Akon-Buoi Centre where the Sudanese refugees will meet a team of UNHCR and other humanitarian partners including refugees commission.
“We have 580 returnees, and they are already being integrated into their original places. We are engaging humanitarian communities so that those 580 households could get food assistance and other basic needs for a period of 3 months so that they are fully integrated into the community,” he said.
He said a team from UNHCR will come to assess the Sudanese refugees, as well as returnees that have come back from Khartoum, who are living in Rumbek.
“The assessment is based on refugee cards,” he said.
According to Malual, one of the gathering centres for the refugees will be Akon-Buoi centre .
Sarah Adam, a Sudanese refugee in Rumbek expresses happiness saying the situation in Rumbek is better more than that of Khartoum.
“In Khartoum, people are suffering. No food, no drinking water and no electricity. I came here because I have one of my relatives who was doing a business in Rumbek and that’s why I came here,” she said.
Ustaz Abdalla Abullal is one of the refugees who also fled conflict from Nyala in Darfur. He came Rumbek through Majullet to Merrem and then to Aweil.
“People travel for many days and weeks. Sometimes there is no food and water to drink on the way. It is a very difficult situation,” he lamented.