Washington, D.C. – More than 20,000 people returning to South Sudan are stranded in border towns, without adequate food and with no idea when they might be able to move on. When a referendum created the new nation earlier this year, tens of thousands of southerners living in the north began to move down to the south. But many of these “returnees” are trapped in the towns of Renk, on the southern side of the border, and Kosti in the north. A Refugees International team visited Renk this weekend and found that the few humanitarian actors there are in disarray. Refugees International is calling on the Government of the Republic of South Sudan and international humanitarian agencies to work together to meet the emergency needs and provide safe transport to returnees, prioritizing those most vulnerable.

“These South Sudanese came to Renk thinking they would only be staying for a few days at most before continuing their journey home,” said Peter Orr, a senior advocate for Refugees International currently in South Sudan. “Instead, they are languishing in temporary structures, struggling to keep out of the alternating drenching rain and scorching sun. People told us they are dying of hunger.”

In Renk, the local branch of South Sudan’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission is simply overwhelmed and unable to assist the few relief agencies with critical local services such as health and water. The serious concerns over the lack of food demand attention from the World Food Programme, which currently is not operating in Renk. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) should also send a team to Renk as soon as possible. At the moment, the burden of coordinating the aid effort is on the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – which Refugees International believes should be left to focus on its core responsibility: the onward transportation of the returnees.

Until the dry season arrives in a few weeks, returnees are obliged to take barges to their final destination. But since August, there have been no barges to help returnees continue their journey southward.

In the meantime, many returnees have been forced to sell their belongings in order to buy food in the local market, where prices are high due to increased demand and a blockade on cross-border trade imposed by Khartoum. The situation is made more difficult by the fact that returnees are receiving little clear information about what will happen next.

And the problem threatens to get worse. The way station just north of the border in Kosti was designed to hold 800 people. It is now overflowing with 13,000 returnees, and may soon be closed to new arrivals. If that happens, even more people will end up in Renk. And yet there is no contingency plan for this very real risk.

“Refugees International first called attention to the thousands of unassisted and abandoned returnees in February, and again in July,” said Mr. Orr.  “It is completely unacceptable that people continue to be stranded on their journey south, despite all the warnings. Assistance must be provided to help these people return home, and it must be provided now.”

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Refugees International is a Washington, DC-based organization that advocates to end refugee crises and receives no government or UN funding. For more information, go to www.refugeesinternational.org.

Contact: Dara McLeod +1 240 486 3011, dara@refugeesinternational.org