![South Sudan's minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, Albino Akol Atak, speaks during the launch of Early Warning for All Initiative and inception workshop for water at heart climate action project held in Juba on Monday [Photo by Sudans Post]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_6949.jpg?resize=1024%2C614&quality=89&ssl=1)
Albino Akol Atak, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management said the country lacks funds to meet the humanitarian needs of over 70,000 refugees who fled the Sudan conflict.
“Now with that active participation, the world now has known that is doing its best in hosting refugees and it has a shortcoming or shortage or a gap that needs to be bridged by the international community,” Akol told reporters at Juba International Airport upon arrival from Geneva on Monday where he attended Global Refugee Forum.
He urged to the international community to assist the country in addressing its humanitarian crisis.
“We have been dealing with these refugees with a huge shortage of funding and this is what we wanted to portray in that global event where we made it very clearly that although the government of South Sudan is now committed to serving this category of people because of that gap in funding we are unable to do all these and as sure, we need to be supported as government of South Sudan,” he said.
South Sudan and Humanitarian actors appealed for an urgent 1.7 billion dollars to meet the humanitarian needs of people fleeing the Sudan conflict.
The government released recently 5.3 million U.S. dollars to meet the needs of vulnerable people, but the amount is not enough to meet soaring humanitarian needs in the country.
On 14 October, the World Food Programme (WFP) said hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Sudan to South Sudan are going multiple days without food as child malnutrition soars,
It is estimated that 90% of people are going for days without eating and already one in five children and a quarter of pregnant or breastfeeding mothers are malnourished.
They are fleeing the war which broke out in Sudan in April.
Many say they were robbed along the way and often people arrive with nothing but clothes on their backs.
The majority are South Sudanese who were living and working in Sudan. South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war.
The WFP says it simply does not have the resources to provide life-saving assistance.
