A vegetable farm in Yei before the conflict escalated to Yei in 2014 | Credit | Gurtong

A member of parliament has appealed to the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission to provide farm tools to returnees in Yei River State.

According to authorities there, thousands of South Sudanese refugees and internally displaced persons have returned home from neighboring countries and several bushes in Yei River State.

They had fled to safety after the renewed conflict in July 2016.

Last month during a meeting with humanitarian organizations, Governor Emmanuel Adil appealed for shifting from emergency response to developmental projects to discourage dependency on humanitarian handouts.

Hon. Paul Yoane, MP representing Yei River State in the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, says those returning home need farm tools to grow their own food.

“People are interested to come back to their ancestral lands to begin what they used to do in the past,” Hon. Yoane told Eye Radio on Tuesday.

“They should be given seeds because if you give them food today they will eat and that is all, but if you give them agricultural tools and seeds, I think they will stand on their own.”

Yei River State was one of the most affected states during the 2016 conflict.

Several people were killed, girls and women raped, thousands of households were uprooted, homes farms destroyed by parties to the conflict – both government and opposition forces, according to UN and media reports.

The Relief and Rehabilitation Commission is yet to comment on the call, but it has been saying it doesn’t have money to play its role of helping the needy, including victims of flooding and conflict.