By William Madouk
At least 297,044 individuals who fled the war in Sudan have reached South Sudan since April 15 when the conflict started.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Albino Akol Atak told the media on Thursday, that majority of the arrivals are returnees.
“We can say 297,044 individuals have already arrived in the country up to October 3, 2023,” Albino told journalists on Thursday.
“So from this figure, 91% are South Sudanese; the rest are refugees from other countries, mainly from Sudan,” he added.
The minister noted that eight percent of the aforementioned figures are Sudanese refugees, while third-country expatriates constitute one percent.
“Generally, I want to say that the humanitarian situation in the country is still dire. It needs a lot of effort to be done so that we can control it,” Albino lamented.
According to the Humanitarian Affairs docket, the Upper Nile state has the largest number of returnees, followed by Unity State and trailed behind by Central Equatoria State.
“Upper Nile has a large number of those who have returned; about 131,000 of them are all from Upper Nile. The next is the Unity State, with about 50,000, and Central Equatoria, with about 45, 000,” Albino revealed.
“Northern Bahr el Ghazal State with 20,000 returnees, Jonglei 12,000, Western Bahr el Ghazal State 10,000, Warrap 8,000, Abyei 4,000 And then you go. These are the biggest states in terms of those who arrived.”
Mr. Albino argued that putting those statistical figures together can easily help the ministry identify the most affected areas and be able to provide humanitarian support to those states.
According to him, the returnees were put in transit camps and registered before they were transported to their final destinations.
“Up to now, from the figures that have come, 144,110 have been transported. So almost half of this figure has been transported,” he added. “The government transported about 27% of that figure, 144,110, which is roughly 40,000,” he highlighted.
The transportation was by air from Palouch, Malakal, and Renk to various locations in and across the country.
Also, humanitarian partners transported 74,259 individuals, while 29,729 came on their own.
The majority of those who arrived in the country—almost 80 percent—came via the Joda, Renk, and Maban borders; the rest came through the northern and western Bahr el Ghazal states, including Unity State.
According to Albino, the figure is expected to increase as war rages in Sudan and calls on donors and partners to urgently intervene.
So far, the government of South Sudan has pledged about 15.3 million US dollars for humanitarian intervention. And as of now, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs said it has used 3 million US dollars for evacuation.