Raja, Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, is one of the areas receiving returnees. (Photo/OCHA).

More than 5,000 South Sudanese citizens who returned to Raja County of Western Bahr el Ghazal State from Sudan are in dire need of humanitarian aid, according to an official.

The returnees, mostly women, children and the elderly, who fled from Zamzum Refugee camp in Eastern Darfur arrived in the area last year and have settled in Bor al Madina in Raja.

In an interview with Eye Radio, Gismallah Hassan Dahia, press secretary in the office of Raja Commissioner said the returnees have stayed for months without access to sufficient food and drugs.

Mr. Hassan described the plight of the returnees as very bad as UN and international aid agencies are grappling with funding reduction.

“The situation is very bad, and they are in dire need of food assistance, because in Raja town, one basin of sorghum is SSP8,500, and one kg of meat is SSP7,000 and one kg of sheep meat is SSP10,000.”

“Now, the number of the new arrival of the returnees is 5,448, the small food that they have finished already and living is very bad situation.”

Mr. Hassan called on the national government and aid partners to intervene and support the returnees with assistance.

Since the fighting erupted in Khartoum last year, the UN refugee agency says 9 million people have been displaced, with over 700,000 crossing to South Sudan – 90% of them returnees.

UNHCR said this makes Sudan the world’s most pressing displacement crisis.

According to the agency, nearly 440,000 South Sudanese refugees still live in abysmal conditions at risk of diseases in overcrowded refugee camps, former schools and other makeshift sites across Sudan’s White Nile State.