South Sudanese need help after a harrowing journey from Sudan

South Sudan | 2024 | CBPF

South Sudan, Renk, elsewhere. “When conflict broke out in my hometown in Bentiu, South Sudan, in 2015, we lost everything. I struggled to get my family out of the country. We moved to Sudan, which was safe and peaceful,” recalls Nyakoang Gai. “I found a job in Khartoum, and I was able to put my children in school.”

Eight years later, in April 2023, Nyakoang hadn’t expected to have to leave Sudan and return to Bentiu for the same reason she had left – war.

In Khartoum, “we would hear gunfire every day very close to our house. Armed men would regularly break into people’s homes and start looting everything. Things simply got worse over the last few months. No water, no electricity, no food in the market, no functioning hospitals. I knew if we stayed, we would be killed or die of hunger. I had no choice but to try and return home.”

It took two months for her and her family to get back to South Sudan.

IOM, with funding from the SSHF, CERF, and other donors, helped provide immediate arrivals with vaccinations and emergency medical help as they arrived. Funds from the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund also helped GOAL provide nutrition support for newly arrived families in Renk.

For many, arriving at Renk and other border towns is just the first step in a much longer journey.

"Since the fighting started in Khartoum, I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I decided to come back to my country and to my family," said Lydia, another South Sudanese woman who fled the war in Sudan with her children – just like Nyakoang.

Onward transportation from Renk is a critical need. With funding from the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund, CERF and other donors, IOM has been helping people like Lydia safely return to South Sudan and re-unite with family.

In South Sudan, where infrastructure is limited, people need assistance to get back to their communities of origin, or wherever they feel safe. However, the cost of transport is high. Transport by boat is one of the most efficient ways to move the high volume of people arriving from Sudan. Lydia and her family, like many others, took a boat south towards their home.

Posted May 2025.

Pooled Fund impact stories

For more information on the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund

Based on original stories from IOM and others.