Sudanese refugees have decried the poor health and education services at the Wedweil settlement of Aweil West County of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State.
The refugees expressed their concerns following the visit by the Northern Bahr el-Ghazal Governor, Simon Ober Mawut, to the camp on Thursday.
Camp Women Representative Nemat Adam Ahmed told Radio Tamazuj that limited access to vital medical services hampered their ability to seek treatment.
She said some of the refugees were suffering from chronic health conditions but could not get proper medical care at the camp.
“Women are facing so many challenges here especially with regards to health. There is no good facility to address chronic illness, especially during delivery and there is also a shortage of drugs,” Ahmed said.
She also decried the lack of quality education opportunities for their children.
“Our children are not going to schools due to distance and language barrier because we from Sudan use Arabic and the schools here use English,” she said.
The Wedweil settlement is currently hosting 14,900 refugees from Sudan, who fled the conflict, which broke out on April 15, 2023 between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Camp leader Abdallah Abdullah said families were taking extreme steps to cope, with some going for days without food.
“There is a delay in the distribution of food ratios. They only give each household half a sack of sorghum, which is not enough. People have gone for a month and 10 days without the food supplies,” Abdallah said.
Head of field office UNHCR in Aweil Mohamed Tetan urged the government to provide the refugees with land for farming. He said that would enhance their self-reliance and resilience.
Governor Mawut called upon the UN refugee agency to address the issues of health facilities in the camp.
“You have heard a lot of complaints, not all of them fall in your capacity but we will come together and address them. We will do our part as a government and we also call upon you to put more effort, especially in addressing the issues of health facilities in this camp,” Mawut said.
Mawut promised to allocate land to refugees to help them rebuild their lives.
“On the issue of the land, I have just informed our brothers and sisters here, I have come with the minister for Housing, Land and Public Utility so that we address the issue and I think all the documentation will be out by next week,” he said.
More than 750,000 people, mostly refugees and returnees, have arrived in South Sudan since conflict broke out in Sudan in April 2023.