Local authorities in Raja County in Western Bahr el Ghazal State have said more than 20,000 refugees who fled to neighboring Sudan due to the civil war have returned home voluntarily.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, the Raja County Commissioner, Selah Mumiki, said some 22,000 had arrived between December 2021 and January 2022.
“We are receiving the refugees from neighboring Sudan’s Nimir, Pardos, and Buram refugee camps. They came back to their land in Raja County through personal efforts,” Commissioner Mumiki said. “From December 2021 to early January 2022, 22000 refugees have arrived in the area but the number keeps surging because we made agreed with drivers plying the roads from Sudan to help bring back families who want to return.”
He added: “We are still requesting the national government to support the organized return of refugees so that they can come and cultivate and contribute to developing the economy.”
Salim Hamdan, a voluntary returnee from the Nimir refugee camp said the host communities in Sudan mistreat refugees and that most of them want to return home.
“There are a lot of challenges in the Nimir refugee camp and the people are willing to come back to their homes but there are no means of transportation,” Hamdan revealed. “The host community is humiliating us and they threaten and tell us not to go out to collect wood fire and if people go out, they rape our women and girls in bushes. Members of the host community have killed many of sons and there is no fair judgment.”