(JUBA) – South Sudanese professional basketball player Wenyen Gabriel has been appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), becoming the first basketball player to hold the role.
Gabriel, who was born in Khartoum in 1997 to parents who had fled the civil war in southern Sudan, was announced as the new ambassador in July 2026 .
His appointment comes as UNHCR marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, which falls on 28th July .
Accepting the role, Gabriel said: “My family was forced to flee war and conflict. Our lives changed because we found safety. I was able to go to school, play sport and dream about my future” .
He added: “Now, as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, I can help advocate for people who have been forced to flee their homes and remind the world that nobody chooses to become a refugee” .
Ahead of his appointment, Gabriel returned to Maban in South Sudan, where he met refugees who had fled the conflict in neighbouring Sudan.
More than 220,000 Sudanese refugees live alongside host communities in Maban .
During the visit, Gabriel opened a new basketball court at Doro Refugee Camp and hosted a basketball clinic for refugee and host community youth .
Reflecting on the visit, he said: “In South Sudan, I met mothers who fled bombs in Sudan and kept moving from one place to another, simply searching for safety” .
“One mother told me that all she wants now is to sleep in peace, without fear and without the sound of drones overhead. Beside her was her eight-year-old daughter, who still dreams of becoming a doctor” .
Gabriel said such moments remind him why UNHCR’s work matters and why support for people forced to flee must continue .
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih said Gabriel’s story is a strong reminder of why refugee protection matters .
He said Gabriel embodies the resilience and potential of people forced to flee when they are given safety and the opportunity to rebuild their lives .
Gabriel’s path to the role began when he was two years old. His family fled Sudan for Egypt before being resettled to the United States with UNHCR’s support .
He later earned a basketball scholarship to the University of Kentucky and went on to play in the NBA for teams including the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers .
In 2024, he represented South Sudan at the country’s first ever Olympics in Paris .
Speaking about his family’s resettlement, Gabriel said: “I think I’m a great example and proof of the good that can come from being resettled” .
He added that his family’s experience challenges the increasingly hostile portrayal of refugees as a burden on host countries .
“We come into countries trying to work. We’re not trying to be freeloaders,” he told Anadolu .
Gabriel has supported refugees and UNHCR since 2022, when he first returned to South Sudan to witness the humanitarian situation and advocate for people forced to flee .
Since then, he has used his platform and lived experience as a former refugee to raise awareness and create opportunities for displaced communities, particularly young people through sport .
The appointment comes at a difficult time for refugee operations. UNHCR and the World Food Programme warned in August 2026 that more than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan risk losing access to lifesaving food and nutrition assistance due to critical funding shortfalls .
The agencies said the final food and nutrition assistance for the most vulnerable 240,000 refugees across the country would be provided in September, cutting off a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people .
WFP faces an immediate $37 million funding gap for its refugee response and an overall shortfall of $258 million for the remainder of 2026 .
UNHCR has secured only 28% of the $286 million needed this year to sustain core protection and assistance for nearly four million refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and vulnerable host communities .
WFP Deputy Country Director for South Sudan Adham Effendi said: “We are seeing the devastating impact of conflicts that force people from their homes collide with a severe shortage of resources that is now making the crisis worse”.
He added: “For refugees and host communities, food assistance is often the difference between coping and crisis” .
UNHCR Deputy Representative in South Sudan Mesfin Degefu said: “Every week, thousands more refugees and returnees continue to arrive from Sudan with almost nothing, many exhausted, hungry and in urgent need of protection and assistance” .
He warned that cutting assistance now undermines hard won progress in education, livelihoods and resilience and may force refugee families to make desperate choices, including moving onward along dangerous routes to survive.
South Sudan has continued to uphold its open door policy for refugees despite facing significant humanitarian and development challenges of its own .
More than 1.4 million refugees and returnees have crossed into South Sudan since war erupted in Sudan in 2023.
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