More than 2 million South Sudanese refugees are residing in neighbouring nations, and the president of South Sudan is pleading with them to begin making their way back home. Salva Kiir claims that his administration will ensure that returning refugees have the necessary protection.
In neighbouring nations including Kenya, Uganda, and Egypt, more than 2.3 million South Sudanese are residing as refugees. Repatriating those citizens was the government’s primary priority, according to Kiir, who spoke on Wednesday in Juba.
“The government will provide security and will work closely with partners to organise logistics around what is needed to successfully relocate in those places for individuals who will elect to return there,” Kiir added.
Speaking to representatives of the sizable internally displaced community in South Sudan, he said those things. But not necessarily in the regions they originally came from, Kiir stated that the nation also aimed to resettle the IDPs.
“Equally, for those who are unable to return to their home, we have met with officials in the states where IDP camps are located to set aside land and to rehouse them “he stated. “I should note that after being recognised, this land must only be given to IDPs.
When he visited South Sudan earlier this month, Pope Francis met with IDP leaders in a similar setting in Juba.
Need for persuasion
Even while he realised it would be difficult to convince the IDPs to leave their current safe havens, Kiir promised that the government would guarantee their security.
The 2013 civil war, which started when Kiir’s soldiers and those of opposition leader Riek Machar battled, resulted in a large number of IDPs being uprooted from their homes.
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A member of the national parliament named James Kok repeated the president’s call for 2023 to be recognised as a year of development, forgiveness, and healing.
All South Sudanese people must get this message, according to Kok, in order for them to be able to go forward and help the country improve. “The president has forgiven people this year, and people should also forgive him,” Kok said.
Kiir made no mention of South Sudan’s ongoing political or economic problems in his request for the relocation of refugees and IDPs. The 2018 peace agreement that put an end to the civil war is still being implemented in part, and violence is still a problem in some areas of the nation.
Intercommunal violence in the Upper Nile region, which is primarily brought on by cattle rustling, has spurred a fresh round of evictions.
According to Juma Nyundeng, a chief in Unity state, the IDPs told the president clearly that all they wanted was peace.
We no longer desire to witness bloodshed, he declared. “People in Upper Nile are fighting, and we don’t want people from Upper Nile, Abyi, and Twic to start fighting.
“We only seek peace and the restoration of our nation so that we may continue to be one.
Since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, there hasn’t been a sustained period of calm in South Sudan.
