At least 12,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kajo-Keji County of Central Equatoria State have started receiving emergency relief food assistance in the last week, officials said.
The IDPs fled their villages in Nyepo and Liwolo Payams when a group of armed cattle keepers attacked and killed more than 20 civilians last month.
Earlier, the Central Equatoria State governor temporarily relocated and operated his office from Kajo-Keji County to restore stability and enforce presidential order to peacefully evacuate Bor cattle keepers to their areas of origin.
While in Kajo-Keji County, the governor witnessed the poor humanitarian conditions of the IDPs and appealed to the humanitarian organizations to rescue the IDPs with food and non-food items and assured the organizations of free humanitarian access to the displaced communities.
Kajo-Keji County Relief and Rehabilitation director Moses Pijakajo told Radio Tamazuj that the UN World Food Program has responded by providing emergency food assistance for the IDPs to restart their livelihoods.
“They have distributed food items to the IDPs in Kansuk, Kaderu, and Bori IDP centers and these items include maize, cooking oil, beans, and salt. About 12,000 IDPs are to benefit and more than 6,000 IDPs have already received their assistance and more IDPs in Mere and Wudu will receive theirs within the coming days,” Pijakajo said.
Rejoice Kadi, received her food rations and thanked WFP for responding to the suffering women and children in Kajo-Keji County.
“We are very happy with WFP because in the morning we can prepare some porridge for our children and cook some food in the day. There are still a lot of challenges facing us and we call on WFP to continue helping us with more food,” she appealed.
Meanwhile, Duku Sebit also welcomed WFP’s food assistance but says the food ratio is not enough to sustain their livelihoods in the next months.
“The WFP registered the IDPs according to their Bomas and people are very happy including me,” he said. “The seven and a half kilograms per person is not enough because many people have lost all their properties and food items burnt down,” he added. “We expect that WFP and its partners will bring another food assistance soon.”