UN presence in Sudan ‘in a precarious situation’ -IOM

"The fierce fighting between the Sudanese army and rebel RSF forces risks reaching the UN bases in the east of the country, warns the head of IOM, the UN migration agency in the country, sharing his frustration at being unable to reach the millions of civilians in desperate need of humanitarian assistance". Read more.

From UN News
Dated Wednesday, 17 January 2024 - excerpts:

UN presence in Sudan ‘in a precarious situation’, says IOM country chief

IOM 2023 IOM teams are assessing the needs of Sudanese refugees on the Chad–Sudan border

Since the fighting began in April of last year, about half a million people have fled into neighbouring South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, and thousands more are expected to follow the exodus. The UN has shared reports of horrific abuse and widespread rights violations. Loaded trucks have been unable to bring aid supplies because of fierce fighting. Drivers have been beaten and extorted for money, and aid workers have been detained and killed.

Peter Kioy, the Sudan Chief of Mission for IOM, spoke to Conor Lennon from UN News from his temporary base in the eastern city of Port Sudan about the dangerous situation facing the Sudanese people and the humanitarian workers trying to support them.

© WFP/Eulalia Berlanga South Sudanese returnees arrive at the Joda border point in Upper Nile State.

Peter Kioy: The humanitarian community has no capacity to oversee or access the areas where people are fleeing to or fleeing from, which makes it really difficult for us to ensure the international protection rights that they are entitled to. The lack of humanitarian aid makes them more vulnerable. Access remains one of the key issues for the humanitarian community in Sudan; we need more secure access for humanitarian actors. Both sides agreed to allow humanitarian access during peace talks, but they are still not delivering on that.

UN News: Do you still have people on the ground?

Peter Kioy: In some areas, we don't have people because it’s too dangerous, and the humanitarian space is shrinking. Recently, the conflict reached Al Jazirah state and White Nile state, which meant that humanitarian actors had to move out. Truck drivers do not feel secure going into some of those localities to deliver aid.

IOM Thousands of people have arrived at Metema, the border town between Sudan and Ethiopia, since fighting in Sudan erupted on 15 April 2023.

UN News: How have IOM staff been affected?

Peter Kioy: A staff member was killed at the onset of the crisis, and we had to regroup around our eastern offices in Kassala, Al Qadarif and Port Sudan.

However, we don’t know for how long. The RSF have said that they’re making their way east towards Port Sudan as well. We don’t know how quickly they will advance, so we remain in a precarious situation, where we don’t know what will happen in the next two months or even the next two weeks.

For now, the situation in Port Sudan remains relatively stable and calm, but it is a probably a false calm because we’re not sure of what is happening in and around the city.

So, we remain vigilant in case we find ourselves in a similar situation to Khartoum.

 

UN News: Can you describe the evacuation from Khartoum in April 2023

Peter Kioy: I think it’s a situation you would not want to find yourself in again. 

It was chaotic. Bullets flying all around, people unable to move and seeking shelter under the furniture in their houses, hiding in corners and hoping that no stray bullets come through the windows.

No one expected that Khartoum would bear the brunt of the fighting, and so the necessary security measures were not in place. This made it very scary, especially for those who had family.

It was a nightmare that no one would want to live through or wish on others.

I remember that we were trying to coordinate our staff to get them to the gathering sites for the evacuation. It was difficult even in the relatively calm areas because of the number of rebel and government checkpoints. We didn’t know how the soldiers would react.

UN News: What is morale like amongst the UN teams in Port Sudan?

We have stayed behind to deliver aid, and we have the capacity, but we do not have access to the people who are in need of our support, and that has become frustrating.

There are pockets of hope. We managed, for example, to bring in cross-border support from Chad into Darfur and deliver some vital humanitarian aid. But, it still remains a challenge, and we hope that with the ongoing negotiations greater access can be granted to the humanitarian community at large.

View original: https://news.un.org/en/interview/2024/01/1145602

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South Sudan called on UN Security Council to lift arms embargo, after it deployed soldiers without firearms

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: I watched on TV South Sudan’s President Kiir giving a speech in English at the UN General Assembly 2023. He shuffled to the podium without lifting his feet and spoke each word slowly while not appearing to convey comprehension. He seemed to be tired and in poor health and may not be fit enough for an election in December 2024. 

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Report by Xinhua 

Reprinted by The Independent 

Dated Saturday, 18 November 2023 - here is a copy in full:

South Sudan calls for lifting arms embargo after deploys forces without firearms

Silva Kiir, South Sudan president

Juba, South Sudan | Xinhua | South Sudan on Friday called on the United Nations Security Council to lift the existing arms embargo, after it deployed the first battalion of 750 soldiers to Malakal town of Upper Nile state without firearms.

Michael Makuei Lueth, minister of Information and Communication, Technology and Postal Services, said that the first phase of the unified forces on Wednesday was deployed without forearms to Upper Nile state located north of Juba, the capital of South Sudan, due to the existing arms embargo which has made it difficult for them to procure arms.

“We are deploying them without arms because we have no arms, the UN Security Council decided to pass a resolution on the arms embargo on South Sudan, so we are unable to acquire arms for our forces,” Makuei told journalists after the weekly cabinet meeting. “It is the international community that insisted and said that you must deploy these forces; we have been saying we cannot deploy them without arms.”

Makuei said that the forces that were trained in the Upper Nile would be brought to Juba for integration with other forces from Bahr el-Ghazal. He called on the international community and the UN Security Council to lift the arms embargo to enable them to arm the unified forces.

South Sudan’s transitional unity government graduated the first batch of 53,000 unified forces in August last year. In total 83,000 unified forces are supposed to be graduated and deployed under the 2018 revitalized peace agreement signed to end years of conflict since the outbreak in December 2013.

On May 30, 2023, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to renew for a year arms embargo measures against South Sudan as well as targeted sanctions of travel ban and asset freeze against individuals and entities. The arms embargo and sanctions were imposed in 2018 following the outbreak of conflict in December 2013. 

View original: https://www.independent.co.ug/south-sudan-calls-for-lifting-arms-embargo-as-it-deploys-forces-without-firearms/

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South Sudanese head home from war-torn Sudan

Photo: Displaced people and returnees trek between the towns of Rotriak and Bentiu in Rubkona County, Unity State in South Sudan as roads become impassable for vehicles due to severe flooding. Intense rains make it difficult for humanitarian partners to access displaced people with aid in most Unity State counties. It also makes it challenging to move returnees from Sudan to their final destinations as roads become impassable. OCHA/Alioune Ndiaye

Source: https://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories

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Article from World Food Programme (WFP)
By Eulalia Berlanga
Dated 3 October 2023 - here is a copy in full:

South Sudanese head home from war-torn Sudan

For many South Sudanese, Sudan was a refuge during their country’s civil war. Now WFP is assisting returnees, as they confront fresh hardship in their homeland

Aker Monychol Biar feeds her son a special food supplement to treat malnutrition. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga

When Aker Monychol Biar’s husband was killed in the latter years of South Sudan’s civil war, she headed north to Sudan, seeking safety and a job to pay for her children’s education. 

“There was nothing to eat and I needed to work for my children,” says Aker, a mother of five, who hails from South Sudan’s northern county of Malakal. “I’d heard there was manual work (in Sudan) that I could do.”

Now, she is back in Malakal after fleeing another war - this time in Sudan. Aker recounts her odyssey sitting outside a temporary shelter that she shares with other displaced people, as she feeds a special food supplement to fight malnutrition to her youngest child, an 18-month-old boy.

A displaced woman receives WFP food assistance in Malakal, South Sudan. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga

So far, nearly 300,000 people have crossed into South Sudan from Sudan since conflict erupted in that neighbouring country in April. The vast majority of new arrivals are South Sudanese.

Each has a variation of Aker’s story. In recent years, not just conflict, but climate shocks, soaring food prices and a depreciating currency converged to create a hunger crisis in South Sudan, forcing many families to leave in search of livelihoods and education in neighbouring Sudan.

Now, with another war raging, South Sudanese like Aker are going home - to face the same toxic mix of challenges that drove their exodus, but with even fewer resources to surmount them. As they continue streaming in, humanitarian organizations are struggling to respond as funding runs dry.

Displaced people at Malakal transit centre in South Sudan, where they face onward journeys to a new and uncertain life. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga

“We are seeing families turn from one disaster to another as they flee desperate circumstances in Sudan only to find despair in South Sudan,” says World Food Programme (WFP) Representative in South Sudan, Mary-Ellen McGroarty. 

Struggling to meet vast needs

Since the beginning of Sudan’s crisis, WFP has reached a quarter of a million people crossing into South Sudan with food and cash, along with high-energy biscuits and support to treat and prevent malnutrition. But it is not enough.

“WFP is struggling to meet the vast humanitarian needs at the border,” McGroarty says, “but we lack the resources needed to provide the response that’s required.”

Many people displaced by Sudan's conflict arrive in Renk, South Sudan, where rains have turned the dusty land into mud. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga

The majority of those fleeing Sudan arrive through a border crossing near Renk in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State - where the rainy season has turned the dusty land into a muddy mess.

Many of the newcomers are hungry, sick and exhausted. One in five children and more than a quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women screened at the border are malnourished.

“It was a very hard journey. We didn’t have anything; no food, no water, no shelter, nothing. It was especially bad when it rained,” says South Sudanese mother Nyanchiu Pehok, who recently arrived in Renk with her eight children.

Nyanchiu Pehok with her son Cheng at a nutrition centre in Renk, where he was found to be acutely malnourished. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga

Nyanchiu went to Khartoum last year to attend her brother’s wedding. She decided to stay, hoping to earn a better living to support her family. She worked long hours washing clothes and cleaning houses, making sure her children never went to sleep hungry. 

Then Sudan’s conflict broke out, forcing her to make the homeward journey. Nyanchiu’s youngest child, nine-month-old Cheng, became sick while the family was still in Khartoum.

The journey to South Sudan only made things worse. At a nutrition centre in Renk, Cheng tested positive for acute malnutrition.

Displaced people in Renk wait to board a boat to Malakal, South Sudan. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga 

“The humanitarian situation for returnees is unacceptable,” says WFP’s McGroarty. “It is the most vulnerable members of these communities – women, children, the elderly and people living with disabilities – who are suffering the most.”

Hard times ahead

WFP and other humanitarian agencies are working to move newly arrived families like Nyanchiu’s onwards from Renk as quickly as possible. The food-secure region has traditionally had only a bare-bones humanitarian presence. It has since been overwhelmed by the influx. 

But moving people on - and meeting their most basic humanitarian needs - has been difficult. Besides insufficient funding, onward transport has been a challenge in an area with no suitable connecting roads.

South Sudan's White Nile is the main way to move conflict-displaced people onward from Renk, as road connections are challenging. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga

Instead, people are relying on the White Nile, a tributary of the Nile River. The journey by boat to Malakal takes two to three days. From there, the displaced still have a long and difficult journey to reach the communities they choose to settle in, and an even more difficult journey to rebuild their livelihoods.

A couple of weeks ago, Aker made the river journey to Malakal with her family. WFP had provided them, and thousands of other travelers in recent months, with vitamin-packed high energy biscuits - enough to tide them over for the trip. 

In Malakal, she received sorghum, oil, pulses and salt from WFP to feed her family. Funding constraints, however, mean the agency can only distribute half the amount of food families need. In practical terms, this equates to a little less than 300 grams of food per person, per day.

On a recent day, Aker cooked the pulses on an open fire as her children sat on the ground nearby. She had no money to add in spices or vegetables, but the children still ate the food with gusto.

Aker's children tuck into a simple meal made with WFP pulses. Photo: WFP/Eulalia Berlanga

“I am lucky because I received this food, but I don’t know how others will survive today if they get nothing," Aker says. "We’re facing very bad conditions and need a lot of things, but we are trying to support each other and trade what we can.” 

More families are arriving in South Sudan. Many have been living in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan for years, decades, or even generations. Now they are moving to rural areas of South Sudan, without the skills they need to restart their lives. 

They have survived difficult journeys. But for many, it’s only the beginning. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) is providing life-saving support to families at the border and at their final destination, but more resources are critical to ensure these families are not left behind. Across all of South Sudan, WFP has a US$536 million funding gap for the next six months. 

Learn more about WFP's work in South Sudan and Sudan

View original: https://www.wfp.org/stories/south-sudanese-head-home-war-torn-sudan

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South Sudan: Nuer refugees in Pugnido Camp, Gambella, Ethiopia targeted by Anyuak gunmen

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: South Sudanese-born Emmanuel Jal posted two important items with footage at his Facebook account today. 

The posts are about Pugnido refugee camp in Ethiopia where many South Sudanese Nuer refugees currently reside: Nuer refugees were targeted and attacked by Anyuak gunmen, at least one young child refugee was shot dead. The footage, taken last week, shows terrified men, women and children running for their lives. The camp has been under attack by Anyuak gunmen.

Emmanuel says 70% of Nuer in South Sudan are internally or externally displaced or in refugee camps such as Pugnido Camp in Gambella region of Ethiopia. They were living in South Sudan's most fertile land full of riches and oil: Upper Nile, Unity State and Jonglei. Clearly, they were forced to flee to make way for newcomers and mining. Who are the evildoers? Why don't Sudanese have land rights or legal rights? We're not living in the Stone Age.

The South Sudanese people who fled as refugees to Ethiopia are resented by many Ethiopians. South Sudanese currently living in refugee camps or elsewhere in Ethiopia who want to return home to South Sudan should be supported by the AU, AUPSC, UN and any others who rake in billions from the world's taxpayers to help the most needy and vulnerable people and children in countries such as Sudan and South Sudan.

Here are the two posts [each with same footage, beige highlighting is mine].

From the Facebook account of Emmanuel Jal 

Posted Wed 16 Aug 2023 with footage of Nuer fleeing gunmen

Shared with Public

These are refugee children under attack in Pinyudo camp in Ethiopia it’s a shame to see armed attacks attacked on women and refugees: #These are Nuer children they speak the same language as me and I hear what terror that they are experiencing. It’s happening in a place called pegnido in Gambella region. This happened last week. Let’s pray that things stabilize 70% of Nuer are internally displaced or in the regugee camp. They come from the most fertilize land of South Sudan with minerals and alot of oil. Upper Nile, Unity state and Jonglei.@guaafrica @chooselove @igniting_change  @angelicafuentes63a @chudierjj2023 @amnesty

View original: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=833381155071232

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Emmanuel Jal shared the second half of this post from Chudier Jiing Kuol Facebook account

Posted Wed 16 Aug 2023

Shared with Public

These children are refugees the camp and they are under attack because they are Nuer. The UN is doing nothing and government. it’s look like there is organized systematic ethnic cleansing of Nuer people 70 % of them leaves in the refugeee camp internally displaced or externally.

- - -

From Chudier Jiing Kuol Facebook account

Dated 09 Aug 2023

Shared with Public

PINGADU REFUGEE CAMP IS UNDER ATTACK FROM ANYUAK GUN MEN:

A young girl child calling out for her little sister, Nyakong who seemed to have been shot dead by the attackers while fleeing for her life. The camp is under heavy attack from Anyuak gun men as men, women and children (refugees) flee for their lives. 

As always, I call on Refugees & Returnees Service - RRS, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR Ethiopia and FDRE government to strengthen refugee protection in Ethiopia particularly Gambella Region. I have to assure you that Gambella Regional State Government is working absolutely against 1951 Refugee Convention. 

The only crime these refugees committed is their IDENTITY.

This is outrageous act of violence with IMPUNITY.  

#refugees 

#refugeesupport 

Ethiopian Human Rights Commission 

Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation 

Addis Media Network-English 

Addis Standard 

Gambella Mass Media Service

View original here 

https://www.facebook.com/EmmanuelJal/posts/pfbid02g5kRvQDso4TLsfefacnwqWsiZqW9EDWU7atvfHPQo9GzkjHaW9KmZKaynME4VWCql

and here:

https://www.facebook.com/chudier.jiingkuol/videos/pingadu-refugee-camp-is-under-attack-from-anyuak-gun-mena-young-girl-child-calli/2027897904218479/

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Further reading

Article from ReliefWeb - excerpt:

Ethiopia: Camp Profile Gambella - Pugnido Refugee Camp (May 2020)

The Gambela Region has, since May 2023, faced insecurity due to ethnic based violence, reportedly leading to several casualties in Gambela town and displacing at least a reported 11,700(6) people in Itang Woreda and other affected areas as of 31 July. Needs for the displaced are assumed to include emergency shelter and non-food items, nutrition supplies for children 

View original: https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/ethiopia-camp-profile-gambella-pugnido-refugee-camp-may-2020

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Situation Report from ReliefWeb 11 Aug 2023 

UNFPA Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Situation Report - July 2023

https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/unfpa-ethiopia-humanitarian-response-situation-report-july-2023
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