South Sudan approves $10 million to support returnees, refugees

The transitional government approved additional 10 million U.S dollars to support humanitarian needs for returnees and refugees who fled conflict in neighboring Sudan.

“When we planned for three-month response, the government approved 5.3 million dollars of which we have used to 3 million dollars. When we renewed our plan to cover up to December, the government approved another 10 million dollars for response to this crisis,” said Albino Akol Atak, the national minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management during press conference held in Juba on Thursday.

Atak added that the total budget for humanitarian response stands at 1.7 billion dollars.

He noted that the humanitarian situation has worsened because of the new daily arrivals of people across the 12 border crossing points near Sudan.

Atak said that so far 297,000 individuals have arrived in the country of which 91 percent of them are South Sudanese and 8 percent Sudanese refugees.

He said the rest are third country nationals from Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and others.

Atak said 144,110 of these people have been transported from Paloch, Malakal and Renk to places of destination.

He revealed that the government and its partners have been dealing with the dire humanitarian situation.

“Generally, humanitarian situation in the country is still dire, it needs a lot of effort to be addressed, the ministry of humanitarian affairs with its partners have been dealing with the needs of 9.4 million people who are in dire need of humanitarian support,” Atak said.