MALAKAL – Renk County Commissioner in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State said on Thursday a government delegation was accompanying over 100 deported South Sudanese civilians back to Sudan to collect their children and belongings.
Diing Deng said at least 106 women and men were seized from the streets of Khartoum and other Sudanese cities, and deported to South Sudan, on October 9.
He narrated that Sudanese intelligence agents forced the civilians into buses and drove them to the Sudan-South Sudan border at the direction of Renk. Deng said when they arrived, the women refused to exit the buses in protest because they left behind their families.
“On date 9th, some South Sudanese women were deported from Sudan. They were brought to the border here. Those women were captured in the market and in the streets, and they were deported,” Deng said.
“I reported this issue to state level, and then the state level reported to national level. Within those days, we have been dealing with this issue.”
Deng said the South Sudan delegation is escorting the deportees to ensure they reunite with their children and collect their furniture before heading back home.
“Till yesterday (Wednesday), we reached a conclusion to send a delegation, and the delegation now are on the way to Sudan. They are now preparing themselves.”
“They are in the border now. They have a connection with RRC Sudan. They are saying that we will receive them, and then we will go back with those women so that they go and take their children and furniture, and then they will be brought back.”
The commissioner could not account for the number of children left in Sudan but said a total of 36 women have been deported without their children, each mentioning five to nine children.
Stephen Bol Ley, a national lawmaker from the Mayom constituency in Unity State, condemned the deportation of South Sudanese citizens from Sudan, describing the act as inhumane.
During an extraordinary sitting on Thursday, Ley raised concern that Sudanese authorities have been expelling South Sudanese mothers while leaving their children behind.
“It happens that now the Sudanese government is deporting South Sudanese. Wherever they get you, they just deport you, leaving the children behind, either is a mother or father, and then they deport them to the border town of Renk.”
“So, this scenario, it has to be stopped by the Sudanese government. Because if they want to deport our people, let them deport all the family. You cannot deport the mother, and you leave the children behind. So, this is inhuman”
The House strongly condemned the practice and directed the Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Security Committees to investigate the incident and engage their Sudanese counterparts on the matter.