Charity Workers Say Time Running Out to Help South Sudan Refugees
6 min readHannah McNeish | Jamam, Upper Nile State – Sudan
More than 100,000 refugees have fled conflict in Sudan’s war-torn border states. Since June, just weeks before the country split, they sought refuge in the newly-independent south. But having escaped violence and aerial bombardment, the refugees now find themselves in another precarious situation, due to food and water shortages in South Sudan camps.
In Jamam, Upper Nile State, a dried up watering hole has now become a bowl of cracked, springy clay. Women submerged in small pits spend hours each day scooping up dirty water.
Women scooping up dirty water in Jamam, Upper Nile State – South Sudan (VOA Photo- H. McNeish)
Macda Doka Waka, 19, says her family fled here two months ago when the bombs fell on her village of Kukur, in Sudan’s Blue Nile state. Her husband is one of the rebel soldiers that President Omar al-Bashir has been fighting in Blue Nile since September, after violence spread in June from neighboring South Kordofan. Since then, no aid has been allowed into these states. Harvests have failed and routes largely have been cut off. These refugees are now relying on international charities in South Sudan for survival.
Kukur says she and her mother spend three hours at this watering hole, digging in the sludge to fill one jerry can with grayish water.
“We know that this water is not good,” she admits, “but it is because we do not have water there. We used to make lines and take water from the tap, but since two days we have not had water and that is why all of us shifted here.”
At bustling water points, squabbles and scuffles often break out between women, often waiting days in 45 C heat for water trucks to come and fill the lines of containers snaking along the cracked earth.
Women dig in the mud for dirty water, in Jamam, Upper Nile State – South Sudan(VOA Photo – H. McNeish)
A man with a whip and another with a pad and pen are in charge of trying to maintain order. But as the sun sets on Jamam, dejected women gather up their empty jerry cans and buckets. Tensions will only mount tomorrow.
Daudi Makamba, a water expert for the international charity OXFAM, says the organization is struggling to provide enough water for more than 35,000 people in the camp. Wells have collapsed and water-carrying trucks cannot keep up with demand.
“For the moment we have an average of five to six liters per person per day,” explains Makamba. “For survival, it is from three liters up to seven liters. But for basic water needs, such as drinking, bathing and washing, we need at least to have from 7.5 to 15 liters per person per day.”
VOA – H. McNeish
A woman leaving water point with empty jerry can – fights are common as desperation sets in
Within weeks, most of this floodplain site will be a mudbath, and complaints about the lack of food and water will increase as roads to this barren haven are also submerged.
OXFAM is appealing for help in trying to resolve supply problems now. It says it will be three times more expensive when the rains come and everything will have to be flown in and drilling boreholes will be even more difficult.
Alnoor Abudik Said, a Bau County chief, says he thinks President al-Bashir wants to rid Blue Nile of black people by bombing them. He adds that he doubts any peace will come soon enough to allow people back
Lisa Schlein | Geneva
The International Organization for Migration says it is not able to meet an April deadline to repatriate South Sudanese refugees in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
The International Organization for Migration is working to repatriate South Sudanese from the Sudanese capital Khartoum before an April 8 deadline for them to leave. But, IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy tells VOA organizing the safe, dignified, voluntary return of hundreds of thousands of people by then is impossible.
“It is a logistical nightmare,” he said. “It is totally impossible to organize such large returns in such a short period of time. We are, therefore, advocating with other agencies for the 8th of April deadline to be extended to allow South Sudanese who want to leave to do so safely and in dignity. Or to open up some corridors between the North and the South, which would allow for spontaneous and organized returns within an extended deadline.”
The governments of Sudan and the newly independent Republic of South Sudan signed a Memorandum of Understanding on February 12. Under terms of the agreement, some one-half million Southern Sudanese still in Khartoum have until April 8 to choose between going home or remaining as refugees in the north.
All ethnic southerners lost their jobs in the north before South Sudan gained its independence in July. So, it is expected that most will opt to leave. However, IOM notes those who wish to remain in Sudan need documents from South Sudan to apply for residence in the north. And, it says this is a very difficult and lengthy procedure.
The IOM already has helped move more than 23,000 people to South Sudan, mainly by barge. But, Sudan stopped the use of barges last month, stranding thousands of southerners who have been living in Kosti, a town by the Nile about 350 kilometers south of Khartoum.
IOM now is in the process of moving 1,400 refugees by train. This first group of South Sudanese returnees are traveling in a 60-carriage train. It is expected to arrive in Aweil and Wau in the Republic of South Sudan on March 10.
Spokesman Chauzy says on the way, the train will pick up 500 South Sudanese from Kosti railway station, where they have been living outside for six months. He describes the rail journey as extremely challenging.
“One of the challenges that we are facing is that the returnees are taking with them huge amounts of personal luggage,” he said. “The reason for that is that some of them were born in Sudan, in the Republic of Sudan, and they are literally going back with, in some cases, building materials. They are going back with household items, personal effects.”
During March, Chauzy says IOM will airlift extremely vulnerable individuals to Wau, Aweil and Juba. These include elderly and disabled people, pregnant women and people with serious medical conditions, who are not fit to travel on the trains.
However, he says the train and air returns will hardly make a dent in the number of people who must return to the South by April 8. For that to happen, he says it is absolutely critical that Sudan extend the deadline.
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