Oxfam’s Executive Director, Amitabh Behar said the ongoing conflict in Sudan has displaced thousands of refugees and returnees into the young nation.
“It’s really critical for the world not to forget the crisis in South Sudan. I think that is very important, given that the world is now full of conflicts, Sadly, with what is happening in Ukraine and in Gaza, a lot of attention is getting diverted,” he told reporters in Juba after visiting refugees and returnees.
Behar, however, revealed that the displaced persons are currently living in overcrowded transit camps with very limited access to humanitarian support.
“The number of returnees and refugees put together is so significant that the transit camp government created along with all the partners is not being able to address their needs. What we are actually seeing at this juncture are people finding it extremely difficult after fleeing from a more difficult situation,” he said.
According to the Oxfam Director, the displaced lack basic humanitarian needs.
He said a woman he met had a bullet lodged in her hip, but lacked medical aid.
Oxfam, Behar said, is trying within its capacity to fill the humanitarian needs of the people, looking at sustainable solutions to problems affecting the displaced.
“The approach we have is to try and fill the humanitarian gap from our perspective and our focus has been primarily on water and sanitation, but we also try and work on rebuilding livelihoods,” he said, “On our side we think there is a need to build a long term solution so it cannot just be humanitarian needs”.
More than 500,000 people, aid agencies say, have now fled from the war in Sudan to South Sudan This means that over 30 per cent of all the refugees, asylum seekers, and ethnic South Sudanese were forced to flee Sudan since the war exploded in April 2023 for protection in one of the poorest places on earth.
