“All We Want Is To Go Back Home,” IDPs Internally displaced persons living at a police center next to the Juba International Airport has decried to be taken back to their home States.
06 March 2017 Makeshift camp in Juba. [Photo by Joseph Nashion]By Joseph Nashion JUBA, 6 March 2016 [Gurtong]- With the continued crisis in South Sudan in addition to the declaration of famine a few days ago by the National Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations agencies, the IDPs who have lived in the open area police post desire to be reintegrated with their families . The group has three different categories; those who are from Maban, Renk and Malakal.In an interview with Gurtong, a mother of six children, Alert Ater does not believe she is undergoing all the suffering but at this point all she wants help from the government or any organization to return her back to Renk.Alert Ater says they are living in deplorable conditions which need urgent intervention.“That is home [Renk] the rest of the things like food and shelter will be my business. But see where I live with six fatherless children, I can’t afford nothing, I can’t go far into somebody’s home with six kids that is a burden, staying with kids where there is no provision of latrines is an open call for cholera,” says Alert. Alert says she migrated from Uganda where she had fled to seek refuge. However, on hearing her home area had become peaceful they decided to return.“We have been seeking refuge in the neighboring country Ugandan so when we found our home area is calm we decided to step back here all we needed from our leaders was to find a way for us to return which none is doing or bothering,” Alert narrated. With the coming rainy season, Alert expresses her worries over diseases outbreaks which may not affect them alone but some people within the city of Juba as well. She says they have no shelter.She however, gave her gratitude to the international committee for the Red Cross for bringing mobile toilets and 10,000 liters of water tank for safe drinking water. She is now appealing to the government and all the non-governmental organizations on behalf of the IDPs to try find them means to reach their last destination.Alert says if there is no hope of returning them to their places at least there should be a provision of their basic necessities. Meanwhile, 40 year old Samuel Dual Who hails from Malakal says that the fact that the government is not catering for them is the major problem.“We were placed in an area where all the very important persons pass while they are going to their offices and others are going to board their local and international flights and they watch over us in this heat of Juba. We are just like any other citizen of this country all we want is to be reintegrated with our families and to reduce on the rate of suffering.” He says, many have lost their infants during the period they have been camping in the camp due to lack of proper medication and proper nutrients that can enable the right growth of the child. He is also appealing to the humanitarian affairs department to consider them and improvise a means to relocate them to their respective homes. Idah Khamis, the Communication’s Officer for the International Committee for the Red Cross said they were requested by the humanitarian affairs office Juba to help install water tanks and latrines and also the evacuation of the garbage from the camp.The Red Cross that covers a number of programs helping the refugees and IDPs in the country affirms that they have no plans for the IDPs living along the airport road in the emergency camp.Idah says, IDPs are there temporary and must be taken back to their homes adding that ICRC will continue to support them with safe water for drinking and removal of the rubbish. Posted in: Featured Stories- See more at: http://gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ID/20279/Default.aspx#sthash.WuyMP38k.dpuf -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14ooxiS4Zgpi9df--RZtdwNoRYY0GaHF2Ge8fYaMZ%3Doy4mg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
