Sudanese refugees at Wed-weil settlement in Aweil West. (-)

UNMISS’s head of Field Office in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State says there’s no hope for Sudanese refugees to go back home anytime soon as their leaders are dragging their feet in ending the months-long war.

Takleti Halu made the remarks during a visit by Governor Tong Ngor Akeen to Wed-weil Refugee Settle on Saturday, to assess the humanitarian situation of the refugees.

Speaking to the hundreds of the refugees in the camp, Halu said the war victims do not deserve to be languishing inside a refugee camp in South Sudan.

He said the war that erupted on April 15, 2023, as a result of disagreement among Sudanese leaders have, unfortunately, forced them out of their comforts.

“I see a lot of people here, young men, elderly, women, lactating women, children and young kids, none of you deserves to be here, you supposed to be in your warm houses, places, not here in the middle of nowhere,” said Halu.

“Unfortunately, you’re here because of the situation in your country, and this is the result of the war and disagreement among our leaders, this is very unfortunate.”

“When the war broke out in mid-April, this year we never expected, it to be this long, and now we have counted seven months and you’re for a full seven months, and there’s no hope in sight that you will go back home anytime soon.”

Meanwhile, Governor Tong Akeen Ngor thanked the aid agencies who are providing support to the refugees.

However, he urged the humanitarian organizations to help the refugees especially students in the education sector.

He asked the organizations to submit the names of students who were in Sudanese universities so that he could forward them to the head of state for support.

“I want to thank the NGOs and UN agencies who are here because of the work that they have done. They don’t have anything in their hands and they always staff who ought to do whatever they have been ordered to do,” Akeen said.

“I want to you to stand behind them, in the issue of the education and your students who were there in the universities, I want their list so that I can reflect it to the head of the state, so that we can help those youth to study, this is their country, there’s no issue.”

Wet-Aweil is hosting 10995 refugees who fled the conflict in Sudan, since April 2023.

Speaking during the visit, Fatima Hassan, the women’s representative at Wed-Weil camp, appealed for shelters to protect them from wild animals.

“As refugees, we requested for the shelters to accommodate us, because the sample of the accommodation that we have there in the signpost is not the one we have here right now,” Fatima said.

“Even if you put risen wire, here we can hear the sounds of animals like hyena, how can we get out with our kids, and family supposed to own toilet, how can you put five to six family in one toilet.”

Ms. Hassan has also appealed for refugee cards from the government and UN agencies because, according to her, young refugees who try to step out of the camp are asked to produce immigration documents.

Governor Tong was accompanied by members of the emergency task force, the Head of the UNMISS Field Office, and the humanitarian partners.