Interview: 495,000 South Sudanese refugees present in Sudan: Sudanese official

A Sudanese official on Thursday announced that the number of South Sudanese refugees in Sudan so far has reached 495,000.

"Presently we have 495,000 South Sudanese refugees in Sudan, where they are distributed in Khartoum, White Nile, East Darfur, West Kordofan and South Kordofan states, and in less figures in South and North Darfur States," Hamad Al-Jizouli, Sudanese Commissioner for Refugees, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua Thursday.

He expected the number of South Sudanese refugees in Sudan to increase due to the security tension in the south together with the South Sudan government's declaration of famine in some parts of the country.

"The influxes of refugees are still continuing as they are related to the current reality of continued war and declaration of famine in South Sudan," he said.

He explained that the Sudanese Commission for Refugees and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) are providing the necessary services for the South Sudanese refugees in Sudan, saying "the biggest problem facing us is relating to registration of the South Sudanese refugees and giving them the refugee cards."

"A joint committee has been formed, where a tripartite agreement will be signed between the Sudanese commission for refugees, the Sudanese Interior Ministry and the UNHCR to reach consensus on a mechanism that enables us make the correct registration of South Sudan refugees," noted Al-Jizouli.

Sudan is generally hosting about two million refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Chad, Somalia, Central Africa Republic, South Sudan, Yemen and Syria.

"We have three groups of refugees, the first group is present in official camps, the second inside towns and the third is a group of youths, the majority of them from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and use Sudan as a crossing for immigration to Europe," he said.

"This third group is what really bothering us because it falls as prey to gangs of human trafficking and organizers of illegal immigration to European countries and Israel," noted Al-Jizouli.

The Sudanese refugee commissioner, meanwhile, explained that the number of the Syrian refugees in Sudan amounted to 110,000.

"We do not regard the Syrians as refugees due to Presidential directives to regard them as brothers and not refugees, where they have privileges as they are permitted to enter Sudan without visa," he said.

In the meantime, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan (OCHA) said in its most recent bulletin that over 65 percent of the South Sudanese refugees who arrived in Sudan are children, with many of them arriving with critical levels of malnutrition.

The UNHCR and partners anticipated the continued arrival of South Sudanese refugees into Sudan throughout 2017, "given the situation in South Sudan marked by localized fighting and critical levels of food insecurity in areas close to the Sudanese border."

The violent fighting which erupted in South Sudan in July last year following the collapse of the peace deal between the government and opposition forces caused more than 760,000 refugees to flee the country, with an average of 63,000 people monthly during the second half of the year.

In Aug. 15 last year, Sudan officially decided to treat the South Sudanese fleeing the war in their country as refugees, which opens the door for the UN to provide them with aid and fund aid programs.

Recently famine was officially declared in South Sudan.

The South Sudanese government and the UN said 100,000 people facing starvation, with one million people classified as being on the brink of famine.

The famine was attributed to many reasons including the civil war and collapse of the economy in the new-born state. Endit