By Bida Elly David
China on Wednesday donated 85 containers of tents to South Sudan in a bid to shelter displaced populations affected by climate change and war in the Sudan.
Speaking during the handing-over ceremony, Albino Akol the minister for humanitarian affairs and disaster management said the consignment contain 26,145 tents.
“These containers will serve 8,808 in terms of shelter; this is a donation from the government as I said from the People’s Republic of China to the people of South Sudan,’’ he said.
Minister Akol stated that 60% of the tents will be distributed to the states while 40% remain in Juba for the IDPs.
The minister noted that up to this year, South Sudan has received 489,284 refugees and returnees as a result of the conflict in Sudan.
He said 82% of the population are South Sudanese while others are nationals from other Countries.
“You can see that our people are the majority and our policy is to take them back to their places of origin.”
The minister underscored that they have transported 182,400 individuals to their various states and three Administrative Areas.
“The leading states that took a lot of people are unity state where we transported more than 51,000 from the figure we have, the next state is Central Equatoria, we transported 41,727 and the rest of the states come,” Albino said.
According to the minister the transported returnees are vulnerable and require humanitarian assistance.
He appreciated the Chinese government for the donation and urged partners for more support for the vulnerable communities.
Meanwhile, Ma Qiang, the Chinese ambassador to South Sudan demonstrated their efforts to continue assisting the country.
“South Sudan faces humanitarian challenges due to natural global climate change and the regional security issues, South Sudanese people who are fighting against the disaster and food insecurity tenaciously will not be alone,” he said.
He said the donation from them is aimed at bringing hope and safety to vulnerable South Sudanese being their friends.
“China highly appreciates the mediation efforts by South Sudan, it hopes that the Sudan crisis could be addressed peacefully at an early date, enabling the political transition to be implemented smoothly,” Ma added.
Gatwich Peter Kulang, chairperson of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission appreciated the Chinese government for its usual support.
“The Chinese government has extended assistance to the people of South Sudan on many occasions whenever we have an issue in the area of emergency natural disasters, IDPs, and returnees,” he said.
The chair stated that within his ten days of tenure on the occasion he was able to receive bunches of assistance from people of goodwill to enable the settlement of returnees.
“This donation is another token of the sincere friendship and sympathy of the Chinese people to the flood displaces persons and returnees, we believe that the donation will be able to support the identified community,
“By working together, we will be able to fight the difficulties caused by the flooding and other natural disasters in the Country.”
Recently, the Chinese government donated 2500 metric tons of rice as emergency food assistance to people fleeing violence in Sudan.
Last year the Chinese government also donated over 600 tons of food staff to South Sudan to curb the humanitarian crisis against returnees.