Thousands of South Sudanese who fled for their lives to neighbouring countries when civil war broke out in 2013 have returned to the country voluntarily, a UN official said.
Speaking at a press conference in Juba on Thursday, Mr Jamal Arafat, the outgoing country representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in South Sudan, said over 600,000 refugees have returned to the country since 2018.
He attributed the return to relative peace in some parts of the country.
“600,000 South Sudanese, who had packed up their bags, had taken their families and returned home from exile. They have returned from Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Central Africa Republic and the Congo,” Arafat said.
“While the people are hopeful they are also in need, their needs are not humanitarian, they are not IDP, but their needs are more in terms of what any citizens in the states would require. Their needs are schools, hospitals, livelihood,” he added.
Arafat also called on the government of South Sudan to end ethnic violence in Upper Nile State.
“In these last two weeks, I have been twice to the greater Upper Nile area, in particular to Malakal, to Adidiang, and to Diel. It is not pleasant, it is not comfortable, I have witnessed the aftermath of violence in these areas,” he said.
Last month, the UN Refugee Agency urged the international community to step up sustained support to provide South Sudan with climate-adapted development assistance to help it move away from dependency on humanitarian aid.