Returnees camped under tree in northern Upper Nile State. | Photo: Michael Daniel.

Thousands of South Sudanese returnees fleeing the violence in Sudan are reportedly stuck in Paloch and other towns in northern Upper Nile State without enough food, water and shelter.

Some of the civilians who spoke to Eye Radio say they walked hundreds of miles from Khartoum before boarding vehicles to Renk County at the South Sudan border.

The returnees say many of them are unable to reach their destinations despite free flights to Juba offered by South Sudanese well-wishers.

According to them, the impasse is due to the huge number of people awaiting the hired planes.

“I did not get a plane to Juba, and the situation here at the Paluch airport is very bad because I did not travel,” said one of the returnees identified only as Ayor, a mother who arrived in Renk on Saturday.

“We the people who came from Khartoum; our situation is very worsening. If it is not this shelling we are not supposed to come back through this Paloch, we are supposed to travel through Khartoum airport but because of the war that is why we are here.”

More than 10,000 returnees and foreign nationals have reportedly entered through Renk in the northern tip of Upper Nile State since Saturday, April 22, 2023.

According to Renk County Commissioner, the civilians started arriving when fighting eased for a few hours between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last weekend.

Ayor is a diabetic patient and on top of that, her son is suffering from Asthma.

She said the situation has been dire for her family of 14 people who do not have a shelter.

“Here there’s no place for us to settle in, this place with a lot of people and I have diabetes and my son has asthma, yesterday I couldn’t stand because of fatigue because we arrived here since Saturday.”

“The airport is full of people and for us to wait is another issue and we are fourteen people in one family and there are no enough shelters. Yes flights are going from Paluch to Juba, but there is a lot of congestion.”