Turkish embassy donates food to Jonglei, Tombura victims

The Turkish government, through its embassy in Juba and the Turkish Christen Cray, has donated about 31 tons of food to the flood-affected people in Tombura County and Jonglei State.

Speaking during the handover of the food aid yesterday, the Turkish ambassador, Erdem Mutaf, said the donation was from the Turkish disaster relief emergency management authority.

It was handed over to the World Food Programme (WFP) logistic cluster for transportation to the two locations.

Help initiated

The assistance, which was initiated by the Islamic Council of South Sudan, is aimed at reaching 6,000 people in 900 families in Tombura County, and a similar number of people in Jonglei State. The ambassador said that these are people who have been displaced by violence and floods.

 “We are here to hand over the humanitarian assistance to the WFP logistics cluster. This idea was given by the South Sudan Islamic Council in August when they visited us to help affected people in Tombura, “Mutaf said.

Amb. Mutaf said they have been working with development partners such as the United Nations and the South Sudan Red Cross to identify the two areas that he said are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

“We worked together with our agencies and we decided to have the operation both in Tombura and one of the flood-affected areas in South Sudan. We contacted the authorities and we got the funding from the Turkish disasters relief emergency management authority, almost for three months [ago]. We have been working on this project and today we have to come to the end,” the diplomat revealed.

“I would like to highlight the very good and smooth cooperation with the South Sudan Red Cross here, and this cooperation is helping to help South Sudanese needy people across the country,” he added.

The acting humanitarian coordinator and country director of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Meshack Malo, welcomed the donation saying a concerted effort to support the affected people in the country would help reduce the number of affected people.

“On behalf of the UN family, we are very grateful for this help, as we all know the number is still very big, but every time we reduce it is if everyone puts their hands on the deck,” Malo urged.

Government support

Peter Mayen Majongdit, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management reiterated the government’s commitment to facilitate humanitarian operations in the country to ensure people who are in need are reached.

“This country has been going through a number of disasters and we do believe [that] collectively in a coordinated manner, we will be able to achieve some, if not all,” he said.

“I am very much happy that, hopefully, this aid will reach people in Tombura,” Mayen said.

“We do believe that together we will be able to remove certain obstacles that are impeding our operations, and we want to also reiterate the government’s commitment to ensuring the facilitation of humanitarian operations in the country,” Mayen added.

Kristel Younes, an official at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), said the donation would address the immense humanitarian needs in Tombura and Jonglei.

“I am very grateful for the donation by Turk Kizilay and the Turkish ambassador for the people of Jonglei and Tombura, who are experiencing immense humanitarian needs at the moment as a result of floods and conflict in Tombura. So, this aid is very much welcome and I am sure we will provide much to the population, ” he said.

John Lobor, Secretary-General of the South Sudan Red Cross, emphasised the urgency of transporting the aid to the two locations.

“We are very happy with these donations and we hope that we will urgently ensure that food that has been donated is transported through the UN logistic cluster system to reach the vulnerable population in time.”

The distribution will be done by the South Sudan Red Cross, the South Sudan Islamic Council, and the logistic support of the WFP logistic cluster.

The items donated include maize flour, cooking oil, beans, and salt.