By Hou Akot Hou
Over 2,600 returnees who have returned to South Sudan and are now camping at the Riang-Anei returnee camp in Gok-Machar, in Aweil North County of South Sudan’s Northern Bahr El Ghazal state, decry poor feeding.
The returnees complained of increased infections among those local returnees living in the Riang-Anei camp.
Camp Leader Deng Maduok Chok told No. 1 Citizen Newspaper on Friday that the issue of food scarcity has caused severe infections among the local returnee population in the Riang-Anei returnee camp.
“We arrived in April, and most of us are depending on anything that comes our way for survival” said Maduok
He said none of the actors has arrived to their aid, as many attempts have been made to seek assistance, and nothing has been delivered yet.
Maduok said the local returnee population who have been residing in the camp are scattered in the bushes for livelihood activities such as wild fruits collection.
“When you move from one door to another, you can find out that many people are suffering from stomach infections as a result of eating the wild fruits such as ‘Ngan-dok’ and other wild fruits, including that of lalook leaves,” he stated.
He calls for the local authorities on the ground to come to their aid in the face of dangers being faced, as drought has made it difficult to produce surplus crops for themselves.
Attempts to reach out to the Aweil North County officials, more specifically the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission chairperson, for comments have not been successful at the time of this publication.
As many returnees have been returning to the region, many decry a lack of enough services as a result of poor coordination from the service providers and the state officials altogether.
Some call for a high need for proper transparency in the distribution of food aid, as many local people, including chiefs, have been accused of colluding with their relatives in getting the ration cards meant for the people of high needs, such as the returnees and the refugees.