Abu Matariq, October 06 (Darfur24)
About 2,000 newly arrived South Sudanese refugees in Kario camp, East Darfur State, are facing worsening humanitarian conditions because they lack ration cards required to receive food assistance, amid severe food shortages and declining basic services.
Ibrahim Weil, the camp’s sultan, told Darfur24 that about 2,000 refugees had arrived at Kario at different times after fleeing several Sudanese cities, including Khartoum and El Fasher.
He said the newly arrived refugees do not have ration cards, preventing them from accessing food assistance provided by the World Food Programme (WFP).
“They are given a share by dividing the food allocated to those already registered in the camp, which helps them survive for only a short time before the suffering begins again,” Weil said.
He called on humanitarian organisations and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to urgently register the new arrivals and include them among beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance.
Kario is the largest refugee camp in East Darfur and hosts about 37,000 South Sudanese refugees, most of whom fled earlier conflicts.
The Sudanese government provided a limited food basket to refugees in the camp at the beginning of August, but residents said the assistance was insufficient to meet their needs.
East Darfur has received increasing numbers of displaced people since the outbreak of war in Sudan on April 15, 2023, with thousands fleeing Khartoum, El Fasher and Nyala to camps across the state.
The camps are facing growing pressure amid reduced funding from international organisations and declining food rations, worsening food insecurity among newly arrived and unregistered refugees.