South Sudan government has said it requires $1.5 billion for a post-conflict recovery plan for 2019.

Humanitarian Affairs minister Hussein Mar Nyout told media in Juba that the return of peace and stability in the war-torn state could see heavy influx of the nearly 3 million South Sudan refugees back home.

He said the money would cater for the needs of the returnees and the suffering populations in rural areas.

Donor community

“With present peace, in a few months to come, we will see an influx of our people back home, whether from the region or from elsewhere. These people will require a lot of support,” he said.

“We need is $1.5 billion and I am appealing to the donors, to the UN agencies to help us,” he added.

The minister further urged the donor community to increase funding to the national NGOs to meet the humanitarian needs of South Sudanese.

The South Sudanese cabinet last Friday endorsed a humanitarian response plan for 2019 in a bid to stem the growing crisis.

Youngest nation

The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Juba last week announced a fresh $70.5 million fund bidding to address the South Sudan humanitarian crisis.

South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, broke away from Sudan in 2011 after a long and bloody independence struggle, but just two years later, the new war began triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The war has seen widespread rape and murder of civilians, often along ethnic lines, and uprooted roughly a third of the population.

President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed a much-anticipated peace deal in September, the latest attempt to end a war.