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ETHIOPIA / SOUTH SUDAN REFUGEES
STORY: ETHIOPIA / SOUTH SUDAN REFUGEES
TRT: 2.34
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 3 APRIL 2014, GAMBELLA REGION BORDER WITH SOUTH SUDAN, ETHIOPIA
1. Various shots, refugee living in camp
2. Close up, food on stove
3. Wide shot, refugees on camp site
4. Wide shot, refugees on camp site carrying bags on head
5. Wide shot, camp site
6. Wide shot, refugee children cooking
7. Wide shot, refugees on camp site
8. Med shot, pan left, UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio Guterres and WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin visiting the site
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio Guterres:
“To come here and see that we have now 800.000 people displaced inside the country and 250.000 new refugees. Some of them, refugees for the second time. With Ethiopia receiving 80.000 of them is indeed a tragedy that should be avoided at all cost. Even if we do everything we can, even we provide the best possible assistance. This is not a solution. We don’t want to see the South Sudanese for many year remaining in exile in these countries again. Peace is an absolute must.”
10. Close up, refugee children sitting on the lap of another
11. Med shot, refugee children receiving supplies
12. Med shot, UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio Guterres and WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin visiting the inside of the site
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ertharin Cousin, WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin:
“We must insure that we provide all the support that is necessary working with UNICEF and UNHCR as well as ARRA to meet the nutrition needs the of the children and particularly the children and the pregnant lactating women because this is a dire situation. Our challenge here is funding. We don't have enough resources to support the work that is required so we must double our appeal to international community for support.”
14. Wide shot, refugee with grass on head walking by camp tents
15. Med shot, refugees sitting on WFP food sacks
16. Wide shot, refugees sitting by tents
17. Med shot, children eating out one blue plate
18. Med shot, refugee carrying baby pan to refugee girl child sitting under tree
The heads of the UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned Wednesday (2 Apr) that the crisis in South Sudan could endanger millions of lives in the coming months if urgent action is not taken to put an end to the conflict and support the civilians who are struggling to survive.
During their visit to Gambella –near the South Sudanese border in Ethiopia-, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres and WFP's Executive Director Ertharin Cousin, together with humanitarian partners and Ethiopian officials, visited the newly-built Kule Camp which houses over 23,000 South Sudanese refugees and the Pagak border entry point, where hundreds of people cross daily from South Sudan.
The refugees, mostly women and children, reported walking up to three weeks before reaching the border. Many described surviving on grass, wild fruits and leaves. They were visibly exhausted, traumatized and famished, and scores of young children are registering an alarmingly high malnutrition rates.
Guterres said “to come here and see that we have 800.000 people displaced inside the country and 250.000 new refugees. Some of them refugees for the second time. With Ethiopia receiving 80.000 of them is indeed a tragedy that should be avoided at all cost. Even if we do everything we can, even we provide the best possible assistance, this is not a solution. We don’t want to see the South Sudanese for many year remaining in exile in these countries again. Peace is an absolute must.”
Altogether, over 88,000 South Sudanese have sought refuge in Ethiopia since the conflict erupted in mid-December 2013. The two agency chiefs expressed concern that the numbers could climb sharply in the coming months if the conflict does not come to an end, and worry that lack of funds could thwart an adequate humanitarian response.
Cousin said “we must insure that we provide all the support that is necessary working UNICEF and UNHCR as well as ARRA to meet the nutrition needs the of the children and particularly the children and the pregnant lactating women because this is a dire situation. Our challenge here is funding. We don't have enough resources to support the work that is required so we must double our appeal to international community for support.”
WFP delivers high energy biscuits and other food (sorghum or wheat, pulses, vegetable oil, sugar and salt) at the border points and in camps, along with fortified nutritional supplements to those malnourished, particularly children under five years old, pregnant women and nursing mothers.
UNHCR and the Government of Ethiopia, through its refugee agency, ARRA, coordinate the response with humanitarian partners. UNHCR is providing medical assistance, shelter in the new camps – Lietchuor and Kule – as well as water and sanitation, core relief items and other protection services to the arriving refugees at the major points of entry. UNHCR has prioritized vulnerable groups, in particular children with severe acute malnutrition and their families for relocation to the new camps. In addition, UNHCR and ARRA continue registration of arriving individuals.
The two UN chiefs arrived Wednesday in Ethiopia following a two-day visit to South Sudan, where they met displaced people, humanitarian partners and discussed the crisis with President Salva Kiir and other government officials.
Last week, WFP launched a major cross-border operation from Ethiopia, to deliver roughly 15,000 metric tons of food by air, river boat and truck to several hundred thousand South Sudanese and Sudanese refugees living in remote and inaccessible parts of South Sudan. Cousin expressed her appreciation to the Ethiopian government for authorizing this corridor noting truck delivery is also significantly less expensive than the airdrops WFP is also having to deploy.
Nearly 255,000 South Sudanese have sought refuge in the neighboring countries of Uganda, Kenya and Sudan, as well as Ethiopia. The massive influx is straining the humanitarian response.
UNHCR has deployed a Mi-8 transport helicopter, with room for 20 passengers and a cargo capacity of four metric tons, to the Gambella operation to assist refugees arriving at the Akobo entry point, a hard-to-reach location.
UNHCR is leading an inter-agency regional appeal for more than US$ 370 million to fund the refugee response in Ethiopia, Kenya, Republic of Sudan and Uganda.
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