74,000 refugees left in lurch

Residents of Neem camp asked to shell out 3.5 million Sudanese pounds for solving water crisis

Nearly 74,000 refugees in South Darfur’s Neem camp are suffering from water and food crisis, a leader of the camp told Radio Dabanga on Friday.The camp residents are facing severe problems with water sanitation and shortage of food rations, the camp leader said.

“The UNICEF personnel working in the camps told us that there was a problem. They said that they couldn’t fund the three water pumps providing water to the camp any longer. They demanded money from us to be able to run the water pumps,” the camp leader, who doesn’t want to be named for security reasons, told Radio Dabanga.

The water pumps were run by UNICEF and another Sudanese organization working in the refugee camp. However, the refugees now allege that they have been asked to pay up 20 per cent of the money required to run the water pumps by October 1.

“If you put that together, it amounts to 3.5 million Sudanese pounds. We are poor refugees and cannot afford that much money even when it’s spread out among the population,” he explained.

The camp leader appealed to humanitarian organizations and philanthropists working in the region to contribute towards the required amount of money, which is now being demanded from the refugees. He stressed that the need for clean water was urgent and the help must reach soon.