The chairperson of the Sudanese refugee community at the Wedweil Refugee Camp in Aweil West County in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State on Thursday called for peaceful elections in South Sudan.
Mahmoud Mohamed Osman who was speaking to journalists said South Sudanese should learn from the current situation Sudan going through.
“We are calling on all the South Sudanese to look at what happened in their country in 2013 and also see the situation in Sudan,” he stated. “We in Sudan and South Sudan are suffering from a cancer that is not known. I am calling on our brothers in South Sudan to hold free and fair elections.”
Mohamed decried some of the challenges faced by the refugees including lack of proper shelter, absence of proper medical facilities, and schools among others.
“The houses they built for us are not secure and once you leave your house, a thief can break in and this has happened many times,” he said. “We want to thank the state authorities and the South Sudan`s Commission for Refugee Affairs for providing us security which is okay apart from some minor cases of theft.”
According to Mohamed, some of the refugees suffer from ailments for which they cannot get proper treatment as the only health facility in the area, supported by medical charity, only provides medical services to children and women.
He also appealed to the Government of South Sudan to address the issue of refugees who were university students and were finding it difficult to continue with their education.
“Some people fled Sudan while they were in the university and they cannot continue with their education, they cannot go to the University of Juba, and we are appealing to the higher education authorities to look into this,” he appealed. “The biggest problem is basic education, we the refugees want a primary school to be opened here in Wedweil because the schools are far from the camp. Refugee children do not have school uniforms although the government brought some books.”
The refugee leader also appealed to the Directorate of Immigration to issue refugees with identity cards.
“We have been here for nearly nine months and up to now we do not have identity cards, there are only small cards issued to us for receiving food rations but we have not been issued identity cards which makes it very difficult for us to move,” Mohamed stressed. “We are calling on the Government of South Sudan to issue us identity cards to ease movement.”