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The massive influx of returnees to Southern Sudan will pose enormous challenges to what is set to become Africa’s newest state, warns children’s charity, Plan International.
Official results just released confirm that nearly 99 per cent of voters in the South’s independence referendum opted to split from the North.
“One of the biggest challenges we must deal with now is the influx of returnees, most of whom had moved to the North during more than a decade of political turmoil in Southern Sudan,” says Gezahegn Kebede, Regional Director for Plan.
“This massive number of returnees, which is estimated at between 850,000 to 1 million is expected to cause dire shortages of food, shelter, water, health care and sanitation.”
There are also fears that 2.7 million people could suffer food shortages.
“People are already starting to feel the pinch as the social services are failing to cope with the influx. More schools, health services and food are needed for the returnees,” says Mr Kebede.
“Access to affordable food is proving difficult for returnees and also the rest of the Southern Sudanese population.”
As demand for resources increase, the price of basic commodities such as flour, sugar, beans and rice has risen sharply, especially in the border areas.
Plan International and other organizations are monitoring the situation in case emergency food aid is needed in the coming weeks and months.
ENDS
For more information on Plan’s work visit www.plan-uk.org
Editor's notes:
· Over the past five years Plan has been working with the South Sudan government to rebuild the country after more than two decades of civil war killed two million people and displaced four million
· Two independent feasibility studies carried out in Canada, concluded that increasing vocational training and skills for young people is essential for helping secure the country's peaceful future.
· One hundred and fifty students have now enrolled at the Plan supported $4.2 million landmark Juba Technical High School, which provides marginalised communities - especially young people and former child soldiers - with skills training in subjects from electronics to hospitality
For interviews and more information contact:
Rose Foley
Media Relations Officer
PLAN UK
Tel: 0203 217 0257
Notes to editors
1) Plan was founded by British journalist John Langdon-Davies in 1937 to rescue orphans and other vulnerable children from the Spanish Civil War.
2) Today we work in 48 of the poorest countries on the planet across Africa, Asia and South America.
3) We have over 114,000 sponsors in the UK, generating £25 million a year, and 1.5 million sponsored children worldwide.
4) Our projects, including schools and health centres, are geared to working with children and their communities to help them build a better future.
5) Sponsorship starts at £15-a-month and, rather than going to individual children and their families, funds projects to improve schooling, health, nutrition and livelihoods across communities.
6) Plan UK is a member of The Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (CBHA), a consortium of 15 leading British NGOs with an initial two-year funding of £8m from DFID to deliver appropriate, high quality, quicker humanitarian assistance to those affected by disaster.
