Africa-Press – South-Sudan. A civil society activist is calling for urgent support to help thousands of internally displaced people who recently returned to South Sudan from Uganda.
Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of CEPO, says displaced families in Panyume Payam of Morobo County are living in very poor conditions, without enough humanitarian assistance.
His concerns follow reports that many South Sudanese who had earlier fled violence in 2016 and settled in camps in Uganda’s Koboko District were recently forced back across the border.
Vita Henry, a journalist working with Morobo FM, said the group had been living in refugee camps but decided to move out due to worsening conditions and cuts in food aid.
According to him, insecurity along the border increased in recent weeks, prompting the Ugandan army to carry out a three-day operation.
During the operation, many refugees were removed and transported to a camp by lorries.
Fearing for their safety and survival, some of them fled again, this time returning to South Sudan and settling near a health care unit in Nyarigolo village, Panyume Payam.
Activist Yakani says the situation in Panyume is dire.
“I would like to take this opportunity with tears falling out of my eye and with worries and with disturbance in my heart to see the South Sudanese population in Morobo county,” he said.
“Look at what we have done to our own people whom we claimed that one day we will govern them as leaders. Our citizens are suffering as if their vote for independence was a curse,” he lamented.
Yakani says the people are suffering and need urgent help.
He’s appealing for donations of second-hand clothes, iron sheets, and medical assistance to help families affected by the crisis.
“I am appealing to South Sudanese of good wishers that CEPO as an organization we have launched a campaign to assist this population with second hand clothes and whatever you can contribute, and if they are any other people who are ready to volunteer with this community in terms of medical services we appeal to you,” he stated.
The activist says the campaign will continue in the coming weeks and is asking the public and humanitarian organizations to respond to the emergency in Morobo.
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