Refugees at the Gorom Refugee Settlement Camp on the outskirts of Juba City on Friday demonstrated against the reduction of food aid provided to them by the United Nations.
Olang Okoth, a community leader of the Anyuak Community from Ethiopia, told Radio Tamazuj that the UNHCR and WFP have decided to cut food rations to the over 3,000 regular refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, (DRC) Ethiopia, and Sudan at the settlement, putting their lives at risk.
“They identified the vulnerable and people who are going to be affected by this have been waiting for how they are going to implement it. On Thursday, they came with a clear message that regular refugees who were there before are not going to get food,” he said. “The refugees who were there before are 3,000 out of which they said 160 households, which is 1,049 individuals, are the only ones going to receive food and the rest will remain without food.”
The refugee leader said they convened a community meeting over the issue and resolved to speak out on the issue because they are wondering how they will survive without food. He said that everybody in South Sudan is vulnerable due to the runaway inflation.
“When the women and children heard the information about the reduction of food rations, they come to the compound because today (Thursday), they (UN) are going to start the process of distributing cash for food,” he stated, “The people are going to die automatically because there is no way that they can get money to buy enough food. Previously, we used the little money we received to buy some food but now there will be a problem if this is cut completely.
Okoth asked: “If the rest of the people are not going to get anything, what is the plan of the government and UNHCR?”
For his part, the Director General for Protection at the South Sudan Commission for Refugee Affairs, Dut Akol Kuol, said they are investigating the cut in food rations for the refugees
“We are trying to investigate the issue in Gorom to see where this cut in rations is coming from,” he asserted. “There has been a demonstration by the Ethiopian refugees because the cut only affected the Ethiopians but not the Sudanese.”
Efforts to reach UNHCR for comment on the reduction of food rations were futile.