ICRC launches efforts to reunite South Sudanese families
April 27, 2015 (JUBA) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched an initiative to help thousands of people fleeing the violence in South Sudan.
The link (http://familylinks.icrc.org/south-sudan) has been set up to enable people trace family members with whom they lost contact.
“The web page will allow South Sudanese people living abroad in places like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and France, look for relatives displaced by the violence,” Marc Studer, ICRC’s head of the project, said in a statement.
As part of the initiative, ICRC said, photos of individuals are uploaded to the website. When visitors of the page recognise a photo of a close relative, they can click on the picture and send a message. That message is then delivered by the ICRC or the national Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies to the person on the photo.
“I hope the web page and its promotion on social media will help refugees and displaced people who are desperately searching for their families,” said Studer.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million people displaced since violence broke out in the country in 2013.
Following the recent violence, however, hundreds of thousands of people left South Sudan and crossed into neighbouring Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan and Kenya. As such, more than 1,600 photographs of the displaced people have been taken in to refugee camps in Gambella, Ethiopia, and in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.
The pictures of adults and unaccompanied children, ICRC said, were taken by the Ethiopian Red Cross and South Sudan Red Cross, supported by ICRC. The photographs were originally put into so-called ‘snapshot books’ and, in January and February, shown in camps and other places in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.
“Thanks to the snapshot books, we are happy to have been able to make around 150 matches so far,” said Dalila Romdhane, the ICRC official in charge of South Sudan. “Now the plan is to widen the reach of this initiative, with the launch of the web page”.
Since the beginning of the December 2013 crisis, ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the region have been very active in restoring family links among the refugees, the agency said.
According to ICRC, over 68,000 phone calls have been facilitated, almost 2,000 messages distributed and 400 tracing requests opened.
(ST)