South Sudan said it required $358 million to respond to the influx of people displaced due to the deadly clashes in Sudan.

Nearly 300,000 people have been displaced into South Sudan since the deadly clashes that erupted in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to Albino Akol, minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management.

Mr Akol warned that the number might increase to half a million urgently needing humanitarian support.

He said the government and humanitarian agencies set up a humanitarian pool when the crisis in Sudan started in mid-April to respond to the needs and the costs of operation.

“In the first three months, we realised that the operation (humanitarian response) would require $96 million to be contributed by both partners and the government.

“But when we reviewed the plans recently, we realised that the operation would require up to 358 million dollars to respond to the crisis by the end of the year,” he told journalists in the capital of Juba.

The minister said the influx of displaced persons due to the Sudan crisis further compounded the existing humanitarian catastrophe the country was already going through, in which 9.4 million people already needed humanitarian aid.

This includes 300,000 returnees who had voluntarily returned home from neighboring Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia due to relative peace. 

(Xinhua/NAN)