Police arrest man for selling duplicated aid voucher cards in NBGS
By Hou Akot Hou
Police in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State have arrested a man suspected to have fleeced returnees by selling to them duplicated aid voucher cards in Aweil town.
Philip Madut Tong, the police commissioner for Northern Bahr El Ghazal state, said the suspect Angok Deng Achuil was caught on Sunday by the humanitarian and Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) staff distributing the fake assistance cards.
“The suspect agreed that he had been giving out fake cards to those who claim to be returnees, and that he got the duplicate cards from people he did not name,” Tong told journalists in Aweil town.
The suspect revealed to police authorities that he sold each card for 5,000 South Sudanese Pounds.
Tong said that such practices could discourage aid agencies from providing humanitarian assistance to thousands of returnees fleeing conflict in neighboring Sudan.
He urged the beneficiaries from the scam to return the fake cards to RRC offices.
Some of the returnees who spoke to Juba Echo blamed some aid workers for collaborating with wrong elements to loot humanitarian aid.
South Sudan now hosts more than 190,000 returnees, including refugees who fled fighting in Sudan across the 12 border crossing points, according to the United Nations.
The fighting, which erupted in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on April 15 and soon spread to different parts of the country, is being fought between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Both sides have accused each other of initiating the conflict.
