The return of some 400 South Sudanese from Sudan each week is threatening the already bleak conditions in the country.
The new nation is experiencing a lack of essential drugs in all health facilities, limited access to safe drinking water, lack of shelter and nonfood items, and an acute food shortage due to poor crop performance, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in South Sudan. This situation can worsen with the returnees having to compete for limited resources.
South Sudan has only started recuperating from the ethnic violence in Jonglei. It also continues to play host to refugees from other African nations, including those escaping the fighting in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. The mass migration of returnees, aid workers fear, could exacerbate poverty, food shortage and tensions in the poor nation.
Read more:
WFP: Why the hunger fight in South Sudan is one ‘expensive business’
Violence stalls South Sudan development activity despite funding pledges
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