South Sudan counts 2.3 million IDPs while the country hosts over 381,000 refugees and received over 600,000 returnees before the Sudan crisis in April 2023. Since the start of the Sudan conflict, South Sudan has seen over 340,000 new arrivals, including 51,000 Sudanese refugees and the rest majority as South Sudanese returnees.

Prior to the conflict in Sudan, South Sudan was still reeling from the devastation of its brutal civil war and suffering from a deep humanitarian crisis, fueled by climate change, conflict, and food insecurity. Over three quarters of the population is deemed to be in need of humanitarian aid. South Sudan has now seen four years of historic flooding with water overwhelming homes, farmlands, and the transhumance routes cattle herders have followed for thousands of years, impacting crop yields and killing livestock, fueling the country’ s economic and food crises. The conflict in Sudan is worsening South Sudan’s already dire humanitarian crisis. Many new arrivals are reaching inaccessible border areas, with limited connectivity, non-existent infrastructure. Delivery of humanitarian aid is costly and complicated. Disrupted supply lines dependent of cross-border trade with Sudan led to sky-rocketed prices and scarcity of basic items.

The Sudan crisis emergency response has been prioritizing assisting new arrivals with onward transportation from border areas while providing life-saving assistance at transit and reception sites. More new arrivals are projected to flow in as the Sudan conflict worsens, contribution to alarming situation at transit sites with dire humanitarian needs. 

With South Sudan’s progressive 2012 Refugee Act and the country’ s GRF pledges, South Sudan has also recently ratified the international conventions on the reduction of statelessness. Nevertheless, refugees, IDPs, returnees and people at risk of statelessness across South Sudan face protection challenges including to access to justice and the legal system; documentation; housing, land, and property (HLP).

South Sudan currently hosts 3,100 central African refugees, out of the 381,000 currently in South Sudan. Its government implements two main strategies towards them: openness to refugees, access to schools for their children, access to identity cards and bank accounts. UNHCR supports refugees with registration, protection, education, shelter, water and sanitation activities. 

In view of this context and the commitments made as part of the platform to support solutions for the CAR situation, South Sudan has defined an action plan for the implementation of the Yaoundé Declaration. In line with the UNHCR 2023-25 vision in South Sudan oriented towards solutions, these interventions led by the government of South Sudan will address critical central African refugees’ needs in terms of protection, empowerment and socio-economic inclusion, as well as creating conditions conducive to the voluntary return and reintegration of refugees in their country.