South Sudan’s government says it needs $1.5 billion to finance a post-conflict recovery plan for 2019 as the country prepares for possible returns of refugees and displaced people.
Humanitarian Affairs minister Hussein Mar Nyout said in Juba that improved peace and stability could bring a large number of South Sudanese back from the region and beyond. He said the funds would help meet the needs of returnees as well as communities in rural areas that continue to struggle.
“With present peace, in a few months to come, we will see an influx of our people back home, whether from the region or from elsewhere. These people will require a lot of support,” he said.
He added: “We need is $1.5 billion and I am appealing to the donors, to the UN agencies to help us.”
Nyout also called on donors to channel more support to national NGOs so they can respond to humanitarian needs across the country.
The cabinet endorsed a humanitarian response plan for 2019 last Friday as part of efforts to contain the worsening crisis. In Juba last week, the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs announced a fresh $70.5 million funding appeal for South Sudan.
South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 after a long liberation struggle, but conflict erupted again two years later and has since driven one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies. The war has been marked by rape and killings of civilians, often along ethnic lines, and has displaced roughly a third of the population.
President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed a peace deal in September in the latest attempt to end the fighting.
