Marie Helene Verney, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in South Sudan - Obaj Okuj/Eye Radio - August 29, 2023

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has stated that Sudanese refugees now in Gorom will be resettled at various camps established at the Sudan-South Sudan border.

This is according to Marie Helene Verney the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in South Sudan.

Helen Verney clarified that Gorom Refugee Settlement in Juba is not a permanent refugee camp, but rather a temporary refuge for Sudanese who fled the conflict in Sudan.

According to her, a settlement, such as Gorom, serves as a temporary measure to provide immediate assistance, while long-term solutions and arrangements are sought for the refugees.

Marie-Helene says that the Government of South Sudan already has three camps for Sudanese refugees.

They are mainly Wedwel, in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, Maban, in Upper Nile and Jam-Jam in the Ruweng Administrative Area.

“The government of South Sudan has now decided that Sudanese refugees in need of assistants who want to stay in camp because they are not able to work in South Sudan will be registered in three places these places are Wedwel in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and there are existing refugee camps in Ruweng Administrative Area, Jam-Jamp and there are camps in Maban in Upper Nile state,” Marie said during a press conference on Tuesday in Juba.

“These are the three registration places for Sudanese refugees who require assistants.”

“At the beginning when they arrived in Juba Gorom was used but Gorom is not intended as a long-term place for Sudanese refugees.”

According to the Deputy Director for Protection and Welfare of South Sudan Commissioner for Refugees Affairs, Gorom refugee Settlement was initially set up as a temporary shelter for Ethiopian refugees, with a capacity to accommodate 2,000 individuals.

However, the camp has now surpassed its capacity and is currently hosting over 10,000 refugees mainly Sudanese, Ethiopian, Congolese and some Ugandan and Burundian.