The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Wednesday said more than 5,000 South Sudanese nationals displaced by conflict have been traced and reunited with their families since the country’s independence in 2011.

Speaking in Juba on Wednesday during the occasion to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, which is commemorated on 30 August, Florence Gillette, the ICRC’s head of delegation, said more than 11,000 cases of missing persons displaced by armed conflict, violence, and natural disaster have been registered since 2011.

The theme for this year’s International Day of the Disappeared is “Time does not heal, only answers do.”

According to Gillette, over 5,900 people are searching for their loved ones, and thousands of cases remain undocumented.

“Unfortunately, decades of conflict, violence, and natural disasters have led many families to lose contact with their loved ones in South Sudan,” she said. “Since independence, we have 11,000 cases which have been opened by families with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in South Sudan. So, we got families who have approached us looking for 11,000 people.”

According to ICRC, 7 missing persons have been reunited with their families between January and June 2023, and 23 people were reunited last year, in 2022.

For his part, John Lobor, the Secretary-General of the South Sudan Red Cross, urged families whose loved ones are missing to report to the Red Cross so they can be helped to trace their next of kin.

“We have offices all around the country and we kindly request or advise people who have people that are missing to report to nearest South Sudan Red Cross network or office where they can bring up their cases,” he advised. “Our volunteers and staff will be able to take records of the people who have gone missing and we will coordinate with our partner the ICRC and see how we can be of help.”

Meanwhile, Herman Sebit, said his son who is a soldier went missing in Malakal in Upper Nile State during the 2013 conflict.

“My son went missing in Malakal during the 2013 conflict and I have never heard the voice of my son again until today,” he lamented. “It has been years now and I am still searching for him because he was a soldier.”

“I have been searching for his name in the list of dead and the living in the army,” Sebit added.