Tasir is 38 years old and arrived in Renk with her six children. On arrival to the frontier, refugees and returnees are registered and refugees are offered to be transferred all the way to Maban, the closest refugee camp. For returnees, they are offered a space at the Transit Centre but as the crisis worsens, Renk is swiftly becoming overwhelmed, conditions are poor with lack of food and water and the risk of Malaria is a grave concern. 

Families, like Tasir’s, have little options and fled Sudan as bombings and violence broke out across the country. For those like Tasir who have any kind of vulnerability, both refugees and returnees, they are sheltered at the Reception Centre where this interview took place. There they await for special registration (e.g. Protection cases, PSN, vulnerable families) before they get offered to be transported to refugee settlements in South Sudan. 

Tasir hopes to be transported to Maban and explains how frightening it was when war and fighting started in Khartoum. She waited for some pause in the fighting in her neighborhood and took the opportunity to flee with her children. 

Back there in Sudan, she was a housewife and her husband had a shop. She says she feels good now they have reached Joda which took a three day journey between walking and cars.

Now that they have escaped, Tasir explains that her only concern is to ensure some food for the family. She wishes for her children to be able to go back to a Sudan in peace, and she is thankful that all her family is alive. 

There is so much uncertainty at the moment and with no end to the violence in sight – thousands hold on for survival and the hope that the war can come to an end.

Working to support our peers at the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in South Sudan – the teams across the country north at the border are accompanying refugees through a number of actions, from distribution of basic necessities and psychosocial support to creating safe spaces for children and safe transport for resettlement and the referral of people in need of medical care and mental health services.

You can support this vital humanitarian work & help us accompany those in need.