The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, on Tuesday made an appeal for USD one billion from the international community and South Sudan to cater for the humanitarian needs of refugees and returnees fleeing the conflict in Sudan.
Addressing journalists at a press conference in Juba, Grandi said that with the high influx of people from Sudan to South Sudan, UNHCR had exhausted all the resources it had mobilized earlier and now requires more funds.
“We are operating in a context of a humanitarian appeal that we issued at the beginning of the crisis, just after the Sudanese refugees started moving out of Sudan in April,” he said. “We appealed for half a billion dollars not just for South Sudan but for Countries that are receiving the Sudanese refugees. That appeal was valid until September and we have received half of that amount but that has come to an end” Grandi said.
“I have to announce today that we are appealing for a billion dollars to run through from September to December because we are already in September and so we need to extend all the response programs and that is why we need a billion dollars,” Grandi added.
The UNHCR chief revealed that out of the one billion dollars, South Sudan will receive 356 million while the rest can go to other countries such as Chad and Egypt which are also receiving Sudanese refugees.
“This funding is not only for South Sudan but other countries that are receiving Sudanese refugees. In that one billion dollars, the amount that we are appealing for South Sudan is USD 356 million,” Grandi said.
He stressed that figure is the amount needed to be mobilized from international donors, well-wishers, and governments in those countries hosting the refugees.
Grandi, who is concluding a three-day visit to South Sudan, disclosed that during his interactions with the leadership in South Sudan, the country pledged USD 15 million to cater to the large number of people who have arrived in the country.
“We have had important discussions on the humanitarian response with President Salva Kiir, the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, and the (acting) minister of foreign affairs,” he said. “And it is very important that the government of South Sudan has pledged I think USD 15 million to help with the very important aspect of the humanitarian response which is the transportation from the border to areas where assistance can be organized.”
Grandi said South Sudan has so far received about 400,000, the majority being South Sudanese returnees from Sudan.
Most of them are currently in-transit centers, mainly in Renk, Palouch, and other parts of the country along the border with Sudan.