South Sudan contributes $5 mn to IOM to support returnees

Juba, June 24

South Sudan has contributed $5 million to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a UN migration agency, to support the most vulnerable from Sudan for their livelihood to resettle.

Kuol Daniel Ayulo, first undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, said on Friday that the project will support the government's efforts to address the most urgent basic needs of returnees arriving from the crisis in Sudan and internally displaced people affected by floods and conflict through cash-based interventions.

"We have an emergency situation that requires our intervention as a government, and to that, we have to look around to raise something that we can afford and support the IOM in response to the emergency situation," Daniel told journalists in the South Sudanese capital of Juba, during the signing of the memorandum of understanding.

Muhammad Asar, head of Operation at IOM in South Sudan, said the project will provide ample cash to the returnees to make their choice to acquire what they want, Xinhua news agency reported.

Asar said the conflict in Sudan has already affected South Sudan's economic outlook, particularly for northern states that rely heavily on imports from Sudan, leading to an increase in food prices and fuel costs and exacerbating protection risks, food insecurity, and negative coping mechanisms.