S. Sudan’s Red Cross pledges to support returnees in Bor
June 22, 2015 (BOR)- South Sudan’s Red Cross (SSRC) has pledged to support many South Sudanese families from Jonglei state who are now returning homes from the internally displaced and refugee camps to enable them get resettled in their homes.
The director for SSRC in David Gai said distribution targeted the most vulnerable 750 families in Bor town, and would soon be scaled up to cover 650 more families.
Each family, he said, receives emergency shelter, including kitchen set, plastic sheet, jerry cans, washing soap, blanket and mosquito nets to foster their resilience.
“We will also continue to assist the most vulnerable people who are returning. With this situation of the rain, many families are returning with their children and they don’t have shelters, their shelters were destroyed”, Gai told reporters in the state capital, Bor.
He further said SSRC and its partners would still require continued support enable it meet the rising needs of families arriving and assist them with the much-needed items.
The state relief and rehabilitation commission coordinator in Bor county, Jok Alier, had called upon the humanitarian agencies, including World Food Program(WFP) in May, to increase emergency ratio in the state.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) had halved the food ration given to returnees in Jonglei. There was general public outcry regarding the reduction of unconditional food ration from 100 per cent to 50 per cent, which gave each person 250 grams of cereals a day totalling to 15kg of cereal a month per person, a half of the WFP ration.
Aluel Ajak, one of the returnees from Uganda, stressed how urgent they needed food.
“We come from Uganda without ratio cards. We are hungry now, no food”, she said.
The situation, most returnees told Sudan Tribune, would only improve, if WFP continues providing them with unconditional food support up to next year.
(ST)