The European Union (EU) on Monday announced an 8 million Euro funding to support the integration and well-being of thousands of people who have fled the ongoing fighting in Sudan and found safety in South Sudan.
The funding is part of 17 million Euros channeled through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (1OM) to the regional countries bordering Sudan including Chad, and Ethiopia.
Speaking during the signing ceremony of the funding agreement with the UN agencies at the EU compound in Juba, Timo Olkkonen, the Ambassador of the European Union to South Sudan, said the funds will support the Government of South Sudan to integrate returnees and refugees and expand basic services in line with national policies and the upcoming Global Refugee Forum in December 2023.
“This new funding reaffirms the EU’s willingness to provide tangible support to host countries. Through this regional program, the EU intends to be forward-looking and ambitious in its response to the displacement crisis, complementing lifesaving humanitarian interventions with early-on, longer-term development support,” he said.
According to Amb. Olkkonen, the program aims at including refugees and returnees in service delivery systems while improving their livelihoods and ensuring peaceful coexistence with host communities, in synergy with other EU-funded initiatives on forced displacement. He said it will improve the living conditions of those forced to flee, and at the same time contribute to security and stability in the region.
For her part, Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR’s Representative in South Sudan, said the funding will enable refugees and returnees as well as host communities to access national services such as health and education, in addition to economic opportunities that will improve their self-reliance.
She said in the eight months since the conflict started in Sudan, over 420,000 people have crossed the border into South Sudan in search of protection and assistance and they are living in an extremely dire condition with access to basic services limited and lagging infrastructure that make the humanitarian response extremely challenging.
“Humanitarian action alone is not enough to address the enormous needs, early engagement of development partners such as the EU is welcome and needed to help people rebuild their life and restore their dignity and self-reliance,” Verney said.
Meanwhile, John McCue, the IOM Acting Chief of Mission in South Sudan, said the funding will be used to provide livelihoods support, particularly to youth and women including training on financial literacy, and entrepreneurship, as well as support to access funds to set up businesses.
He said farmers will also receive climate-resilient seeds as well as training on topics such as food processing and conservation, business management, marketing, and commercialization and investments.
South Sudan hosts more than 2.2 million internally displaced persons and over 337,000 refugees and since the start of the conflict in Sudan on 15 April 2023, over 425,985 individuals have crossed the border into South Sudan.