South Sudan calls on displaced persons and refugees to return to their homes or resettle in the capital

23 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has called on internally displaced persons and refugees residing in camps to return home or resettle in the capital Juba before pledging that the authorities will guarantee the safety of those returning. homes they left because of conflict and violence.

“The Government will provide security and work together with partners to organize the necessary logistics for a successful resettlement for those who choose to return to their usual areas of residence,” he said during a meeting with representatives of the displaced and refugees in Juba.

“Regarding those who cannot return to their areas of residence, we have spoken with the authorities of the states where there are displacement camps to allocate land to resettle them (in Juba). These lands, when designated, will be delivered only to the internally displaced,” he explained.

Likewise, he has asked the international community to support the authorities in these reintegration and resettlement programs and has stated that “around 2.3 million” South Sudanese live in refugee camps in neighboring countries, according to the Radio Tamazuj station. .

Kiir has defended that “with the progress of the application of the peace agreement towards its final phase, in which the elections will put an end to the transition period, repatriating fellow citizens from the camps in neighboring countries must be one of the main points of the schedule”.

The statements by the South Sudanese president have come about a week after the United Nations warned of the “drastic increase” in violence in South Sudan during the last quarter of 2022, a period in which 450 people died, which represents an increase than 87 percent of affected civilians compared to the same period in 2021.

South Sudan has a unity government that came into being after the 2018 peace agreement materialized. Despite the decrease in violence due to the political conflict, the country has registered an increase in inter-community confrontations, mainly motivated by theft livestock and disputes between herders and farmers in the most fertile areas of the country, especially due to increased desertification and population displacement.