By Hou Akot Hou
Commissioner of Aweil East County, Northern Bahr Ghazal state has issued stringent warnings to Relief and Rehabilitation Commission’s (RRC) staff, for misconduct.
The RRC staff are on spotlight for allegedly allocating distribution cards for themselves in order to amass wealth, instead of prioritizing returnees and refugees.
The ploy came to light after Diing Aher Ngong held a symposium with returnees and host communities respectively in a camp at Rum-aker and Malual-kuel.
According to Diing, some people work behind the scenes to sell cards for money to affluent traders, to receive relief items.
“We have discovered a lot of illicit deals going on during distribution of food items including non-food items such as money and plastic sheets. People who are even working as staff of RRC cooperate with the traders and offer them cards” Ngong said.
The commissioner ponders the thoughts of some individuals, who are entrusted to handle other people, in desperate situations.
“The aim is to alleviate the sufferings that our people are going through and if we never show sympathy and be empathetic so that we feel like how they are undergoing tragedies. How humane are we?” Diing questions.
Diing also blasted ill-practices that local chiefs undertake by registering their own relatives, saying such degrading acts must be shunned at all cost, once identified.
The commissioner revealed plans to collaborate with partners to devise better strategies to curtail such practices.
In a different vein, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State governor, Tong Aken Ngor urges the public including returnees to prepare land as rain falls.
He warns of looming hunger in the state, if citizens evade tilling land with available tools despite lack of tools and machinery to open large areas for cultivation.