{"id":3505,"date":"2020-07-25T10:25:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T10:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onecitizendaily.com\/?p=3505"},"modified":"2020-07-25T10:30:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T10:30:34","slug":"over-one-thousand-refugees-forced-to-return-from-dr-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/25\/over-one-thousand-refugees-forced-to-return-from-dr-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Over one thousand refugees forced to return from DR Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Hon. Janet Aya, member of parliament representing Morobo County.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By\nKeji Janefer Silver<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over one thousand\nSouth Sudanese who sought refuge in the neighboring Congo, were forced to\nreturn home by some forces who called themselves \u2018Joint Operation\u2019, and were stranded\nin Morobo County, in dire humanitarian need, said Janet Aya Alex, a member of\nparliament representing the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hon. Aya condemned\nthose forcing people to return from refugee\u2019s camps at a time when the whole\nworld is hit by a coronavirus pandemic, and movement restrictions have been\nimposed at border points. She however, said the returnees did not return\nvoluntarily on their own nor in an organized manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey did not\nreturn voluntarily, they were forced, that is why we call them forced returnees,\nbut if it was organized, they would have been transported by UN and given\nsomething for them to start life, but in this case they were forced back by\nforces which we don\u2019t know, who called themselves \u2018joint operation\u2019 under whom\nwe do not know,\u201d Janet revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aya further said\nthe forces even entered Congo and beat people there, including Congolese, which\ncreated tension between SSPF forces and those of Congolese, which was later\nresolved. She said when there is peace, people will definitely return\nvoluntarily, like after the liberation, in an organized way but not being\nforced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janet Aya Alex\nsaid majority of those who were forced to return from Congo returned with\nnothing in their hands and they need to be supported materially, and also to be\ncounselled mentally. She said most of these people have been traumatized by the\nconflict, which led to thousands of internally displaced, and millions fleeing\nthe country to neighboring countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they are\ngiven farm tools and seeds, they will be able to produce for themselves food\nduring this last rainy season, since Morobo is an agricultural land and the\nreturnees are also farmers,\u201d Janet appealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aya said when\nthe people started returning, they said they were forced by a group calling\nthemselves \u2018joint operation\u2019, claiming that they were representing the area.\nHowever, the SSPDF commander said the army was surprised to see the refugees\nreturning, and were not aware of the group that called themselves \u2018joint\noperation\u2019.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nparliamentarian called on the parties who signed cession of hostilities\nagreement to commit themselves to it, and respond to incidents of ill-treatment\nof civilians.  She accused CTSAM of failing\nto monitor and report accurately on the violations being committed by different\narmed groups.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately,\nCTSAM is not really monitoring and reporting correct things, there are some\nincidents that are happening, but they only report one side of the story. They\ndon\u2019t report what other parties are doing. So I think we really want CTSAM to\nbe impartial and report facts,\u201d the parliamentarian stressed.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janet also\nappealed to UNHCR and IOM to observe and report on such incidents through a\ncoordinated effort to ensure that people safely return when plans are put in\nplace, to receive and integrate them into the community. She pointed out that\nsuch forceful returns cause crisis, especially at this time when there is\nrestriction on movement due coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When contacted\nby No.1 citizen newspaper, Maj. General Lul Ruai Kong, the spokesperson of\nSSPDF, also denied receiving any report of South Sudanese who have been forced\nto return from Congo into the country by forces who called themselves \u2018joint\noperation forces\u2019, not known to which party they belong. \u201cI don\u2019t have any\ninformation about South Sudanese who are forced to return to the country,\u201d said\nLul Ruai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janet Aya spoke\nduring a handover of non-food items contributed by Panyobu United Association\nin Juba, that will be transported by the Archbishop of Central Equatoria\nProvince of Episcopal Church of South Sudan, to support the returnees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Keji Janefer Silver Over one thousand South Sudanese who sought refuge in the neighboring Congo, were forced to return home by some forces who called themselves \u2018Joint Operation\u2019, and were stranded in Morobo County, in dire humanitarian need, said Janet Aya Alex, a member of parliament representing the area.[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3507,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions\/3507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}