United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi on Tuesday appealed for 1 billion U.S. dollars to support returnees and refugees who fled the Sudan crisis to the neighboring countries.
Grandi told journalists in the South Sudanese capital of Juba that with the high influx of people from Sudan, the UNHCR has exhausted all the resources it had mobilized earlier and now requires more funds. “I have to announce today that we are appealing for a billion U.S. dollars to run through from September to December because we are already in September, and so we need to extend all the response programs, and that is why we need a billion dollars.”
“We are operating in the context of a humanitarian appeal that we issued at the beginning of the crisis, just after the Sudanese refugees started moving out of Sudan in April. We appealed for half a billion dollars not just for South Sudan but for countries that are receiving the Sudanese refugees. That appeal was valid until September, and we have received half of that amount, but that has come to an end,” Grandi said.
The UNHCR chief said the influx of refugees and returnees from Sudan is raising serious concerns, especially by the end of the year if nothing is done regarding transportation and food items.
He noted that out of the 1 billion dollars they are appealing for, South Sudan will receive 356 million dollars while the rest can go to other countries such as Chad and Egypt, which are also receiving Sudanese refugees.
Grandi said South Sudan has received about 400,000 people, the majority being South Sudanese returnees; most of them are currently in the transit centers, mainly in Renk, Palouch, and other parts of the country on the border with Sudan.
Source: Xinhua
