The International Committee of the Red Cross has launched a new initiative to help reunite thousands of people fleeing the violence in South Sudan.
ICRC has set up a webpage (https://familylinks.icrc.org/south-sudan) which enables people to trace family members with whom they have lost contact.
“The webpage will allow South Sudanese living abroad in places like the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and France, look for relatives displaced by the violence,” said the ICRC’s Marc Studer, who is charging the project.
There are more than 522,000 refugees from South Sudan in four Eastern Africa countries who have fled fighting back home. The UN humanitarian agency warned that the deteriorating food insecurity situation in South Sudan is also expected to increase the number of refugees entering Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.
ICRC said more than 1,600 photographs of displaced people have been taken in refugee camps in Gambella, Ethiopia, and Juba, South Sudan.
The pictures of adults and unaccompanied children were taken by the Ethiopian Red Cross and the South Sudan Red Cross, supported by the ICRC.
Photos of individuals are uploaded to the website. When visitors of the page recognize a photo of a close relative they can click on the picture and send a message. That message is then delivered by the ICRC or the national Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies to the person on the photo.
“I hope the webpage and its promotion on social media will help refugees and displaced people who are desperately searching for their families,” Studer said.
South Sudan has been engulfed in more than 15-month long conflict between rival forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar. Fighting has since resumed in the oil-rich Greater Nile region, particularly in the three states of Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei.
