As a convoy of river barges leaves Renk in South Sudan’s
Upper Nile State today, carrying over 2,500 vulnerable South
Sudanese returnees who have been stranded in the town for months,
the fate of more than 16,000 others hangs in balance as a shortage
of funds may force IOM to suspend operations to help them.

Due to insecurity along the border with Sudan earlier this year
and the onset of the rainy season, most South Sudan-bound returnees
continue to enter the country through the town of Renk, from where
they need help to get back to their areas of origin.

“With over 20,000 stranded returnees throughout South
Sudan, the majority of whom are located in Renk, where all access
with the exception of the Nile river is cut off during the rainy
season, it is critical that onward transport assistance is provided
if we are to avoid multiple  humanitarian crises at transit
points,” says Vincent Houver, IOM South Sudan Chief of
Mission.

IOM has appealed for USD 45,903,000 to provide assistance to
stranded and vulnerable returnees within South Sudan, including
providing transport, non-food and medical assistance.  To date
only 12 per cent of the appeal has been funded, leaving a funding
gap of USD 40,403,000.

Transport within South Sudan is severely hampered by lack of
all-weather roads and by the shortage of transport. Once the
returnees enter South Sudan, they can remain stranded at their
points of entry for several months waiting for transport. From
Renk, it is an arduous three-week journey by barge to reach
Juba.

 

In Renk, where IOM has provided over 21,000 medical consultations
to returnees, security and living conditions have steadily
deteriorated, following the closure of the Sudan-South Sudan border
earlier in the year. This resulted in dwindling supplies of food
and water, and escalating tensions between host and return
communities.

Since the beginning of 2012, an estimated 116,000 people have
returned to South Sudan from Sudan.  In the past year, IOM,
which co-chairs the emergency returns sector, has helped to
transport 50,000 stranded returnees by river barges, boats, buses,
trains and planes to their final destinations. 

IOM is responsible for the overall coordination of the
humanitarian response in Renk. With its humanitarian partners, it
is involved in the distribution of non-food relief items and
emergency shelter materials, the provision of emergency healthcare
services, and the provision of water and sanitation services.

IOM is now preparing to help another group of 2,500 returnees to
leave Renk for Juba, from where most will continue to the
country’s north-western provinces by road. But its funding
for transport will be entirely depleted by the beginning of
September, putting into question the future of such operations.

“At least 40,000 South Sudanese nationals in Khartoum and
Kosti in Sudan are also waiting for return assistance. But at this
point we are being forced to consider the suspension of all return
transport operations within the next two months, unless new funding
is secured,” says Houver.

For more information please contact 

Samantha Donkin

IOM Juba

Tel: +211922406728

Email: "mailto:sdonkin@iom.int">sdonkin@iom.int