Hon. Albino Atak, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs - Credit: Moses Awan/Eye Radio - April 26, 2023

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs has arranged trips to eight Arab countries to solicit relief aid for thousands of returnees and refugees along the South Sudan-Sudan border.

Minister Albino Atak returned on Sunday, September 3, from Saudi Arabia on his first visit to mobilize humanitarian support for returnees.

His next trips will be to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the Kingdom of Morocco and Algeria.

Atak told Eye Radio that the Sudan conflict has affected South Sudan badly and it needs to be assisted by humanitarian assistance.

“This plan is about the mobilization of the humanitarian support to the returnees and refugees that are coming as a result of the conflict in Sudan. In the Middle East, we still have to deliver letters to UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and then also in North Africa,” said Atak.

“We are going to deliver these letters to the Kingdom of Morocco and Algeria, this now eight countries, for the time being, these are the countries that we have selected,” he said.

“I think we will also go beyond because the suffering of our people will make us appeal to those who are willing to support us because this is not our internal issues, this is an external issue that affected Sudan and now all the countries that bordering Sudan and even beyond.”

Over 250,000 people are reported to have crossed to South Sudan – 90% of whom are South Sudanese who fled the 2013 and 2016 conflict.

The conflict between Sudan’s army and Rapid Support Forces since April 15 has killed and wounded thousands of civilians with hundreds of thousands displaced, according to the United Nations.

The fifth -month of fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Force has turned Sudan’s capital Khartoum into an urban battlefield.