El-Daein,January 5(Darfur24) Southern refugees in Krio camp, 25 kilometers south of El Daein, the capital of East Darfur state, complain of severe food shortages and a rise in consumer prices.
East Darfur hosts more than 150,000 refugees from South Sudan distributed in three camps: Al-Nimr camp in Asalaya locality, Al-Firdous camp in Al-Firdous locality, and Krio camp in Bahr Al-Arab locality.
Sultan Ibrahim Yawel told Darfur 24 that the camp refugees are living in an acute food crisis these days, and that the living situation has deteriorated since the moment humanitarian organizations replaced in-kind relief items with cash, by paying five thousand pounds for each refugee in exchange for food for a full month.
He explained that this amount is not enough for the refugees for one day, at a time when food prices are rising inside the camp, where the price of a pound of sugar is 450 pounds, a kilo of meat is 2,500 thousands and Malwa of grain is 1500 pounds .
The Sultan called on humanitarian organizations to intervene urgently to save the refugees from the threat of starvation, and to provide humanitarian aid in the camp through the High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program.
The Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs in East Darfur, Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed, said that he and the acting governor, Mohamed Adam Abdel Rahman, met with UNHCR High Commissioner for Khartoum to demand the return of the system of in-kind materials instead of cash.
He stated that the High Commissioner informed them that exchanging foodstuffs for cash amounts is a global policy that is currently being applied in all countries that have refugees, and added: The Commissioner promised to refer the case to the United Nations office.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates the total number of Southern Sudanese refugees in Sudan about 250,000 .