Authorities in the province of Renk, Upper Nile state, in South Sudan have complained about a heavy presence of returnees waiting to return to the South, experiencing food and medicine shortages.

An estimated 26,000 arrived to the area following the independence of the South in July 2011.

The coordinator of the returnees Santino Bedu Ator, told Radio Tamazuj there are approximately 26,000 people stuck at Renk out of a previous 37,000, still waiting to be transported to other states in the South.

He added that there is a shortage in the budget to transport returnees at a time where the number of returnees has exceeded the number of local residents.