South Sudan’s warring parties at the peace talks did not discuss the key issues facing refugees who are currently living in appalling conditions in neighbouring countries, a representative of the refugees at the talks said.
“My personal disappointment as representative of the refugees is the issue of those of us who are suffering in the refugee camps. Those who are in the refugee camps were never an issue in this forum,” Canon Clement Janda said in a statement in Addis Ababa on Monday.
The religious leader revealed that the warring parties focused on power sharing and government positions while ignoring the suffering of millions who are suffering in refugee camps.
“Our biggest problem is security… We just want to go home to our homes and be safe to cultivate and to rear our cattle and goats and live in peace, so we want security,” he said.
Millions of South Sudanese refugees are hosted in six asylum countries: the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.