Global Courant 2023-04-25 12:14:19
About 5,000 people arrived in the border town of Renk in South Sudan, but according to local media reports, this number will be much higher.
One of the returnees says he walked 10 hours to reach the border town of Renk. (AA)
More than 10,000 people fleeing the conflict in Sudan have reached neighboring South Sudan since clashes broke out in mid-April between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Returnees and refugees arrived in the border town of Renk in Upper Nile state and Aweil North County in northern Bahr El Ghazal state, authorities said on Tuesday.
Kak Padiet, a local official at Renk, described the influx as worrying.
Padiet told Anadolu, “Three-quarters of the attendees are from South Sudan, and the rest are from Sudan, Eritrea, Kenyan, Ugandan and Somalia.”
He urged state and national governments to intervene to address the humanitarian conditions of IDPs.
“On Sunday we received 3,000 people and on Saturday about 6,500 people arrived and many are still on the road. Now they have stopped coming due to transportation (problems).”
“I was at the border on Sunday and we also took 15 Kenyans, 15 Somalis, 15 Ugandans and 65 Eritreans. That’s the number from Sudan yesterday. We took them to the Paloch oil field for transport. To Juba.”
Padiet urged non-governmental organizations to support these people as no one was helping them with water, food and shelter.
He said that their number is high and that those at the border cannot record them and give accurate figures.
READ MORE: US: Sudanese rivals agree 72-hour ceasefire after hundreds killed
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – Sudan Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces agreed to implement a nationwide 72-hour ceasefire starting April 24, 2200 GMT pic.twitter.com/IggxCpRZAU
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) 24 April 2023
great flock
Kuot Dau, the press secretary at the Aweil North County county commissioner’s office, said they had received a large influx of returnees and refugees, and there was no cell phone network where they were located, and he did not know their exact number.
He said county officials will travel to these border areas to find out the exact number of entrants.
Some media outlets reported that about 5,000 people had arrived in Aweil North County, but Dau said the number was huge and will now be larger than that.
One of the returnees said he had walked 10 hours from his stay in Khartoum to reach the border town of Renk.
“It was not easy for me to reach South Sudan. I really suffered a lot. But thankfully a friend helped. He provided my transportation and I managed to reach South Sudan safely.”
Those unable to walk that distance were unsure of when they would reach South Sudan and were stuck, he said.
He said that a lot of people spend their days going to the border and people there are really suffering.
Deputy Foreign Minister Deng Dau Deng Malek said that more than 1 million South Sudanese live in Sudan.
“There is an urgent need right now as we speak to support the government of Upper Nile State, which is the county of Color. They need fuel. They need cars, people in Khartoum and elsewhere, and money.”
“When we assess risk and security, it shouldn’t be a problem for our people to come that way, because we’re not part of this war and we’re talking to all parties to get back to the negotiating table,” Malek said. said.
READ MORE: Çavuşoğlu: Türkiye continues its efforts to evacuate from Sudan
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Source: AA
