NGOs say 122,800 southerners in need of aid

Some 122,800 people in southern Sudan desperately need food aid and other basic needs such as health and educational facilities, agricultural tools and clean water, a group of seven NGOs operating in the region said. Launching an appeal for US $434,913 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday, John Kwaje, chairman of the New Sudanese Indigenous NGOs (NESI) group said: "The seven NGOs which have made the joint appeal operate in various fields of service. The appeal is to save the areas worst hit by food shortages resulting from the lack of rains or the influx of returnees." "The specific counties which will be covered by the funding will include, Anyuak Kingdom in Pochala, Lianya, Torit, Mundri, Twic county and the Shilluk region," he added. NESI is a consortium of 47 indigenous NGOs working in south Sudan with international NGOs. Victoria Garile, Director of South Sudan Community Association, one of the member NGOs said: "Children are learning under trees [and the] number is increasing as some are coming back from exile." Officials of another NGO, Mak-Deel for Development and Training Association, said: "Pochala county currently is congested with 20,000 refugees and internally displaced persons." Before the "Preparation for Sudan Reconstruction" conference held in Oslo, Norway, in September, representatives of the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People 's Liberation Movement/Army had urged the international communities to provide $300 million in aid to cover the urgent needs of people in southern Sudan. They said funds were needed to, among other things, assist about one million or more people who were expected to return home once a final peace accord is signed in the south. The Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission had said it had already registered 1.5 million returnees in South Sudan.