UN refugee emergency teams arrive in South Sudan to bolster repatriation efforts

Building up its presence in Southern Sudan in advance of what is potentially a huge repatriation operation involving hundreds of thousands of returnees to an area devastated by 21 years of civil war, the United Nations refugee agency has sent three emergency teams to open new offices in the eastern part of the region.

The 18 team members, who arrived this week, are expected to open offices in Bor, Kapoeta and possibly Nasir, if that area proves safe enough for refugees to return to, following January’s peace agreement ending the fighting between the Government and rebels. Some 4.5 million Sudanese are estimated to have been displaced by the war, 550,000 of them refugees who fled across the borders, mainly to Ethiopia and Kenya.

Despite the importance of the operation, which, if successful, would bring an end to one of the world’s most deadly and enduring crises, in which 2 million people are estimated to have been killed, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) South Sudan operation remains seriously under-funded, with only $39 million so far received out of the $76.3 million budgeted for 2005.

One of the UNHCR teams – a programme officer, a protection officer and an administration staffer – plans to fly to Bor tomorrow to prepare for the first new office.

“There is absolutely nothing there,” Bernard Kerblat, leader of the three teams and overall Deputy Operations Manager said. That means UNHCR staffers will have to take with them everything they need – mats, camping beds, stoves, tables, benches, first aid kits, water purifiers – to tide them over the first few days.

A top priority is organizing ‘go and see’ visits to Bor for Sudanese refugees currently living in Kakuma camp in north-western Kenya. The decision to repatriate is a major one, and this type of visit is often used as a way to let refugees themselves assess conditions back home before making an informed decision on whether to leave their camps once and for all in order to rebuild their lives in their own countries.

UNHCR sends emergency teams for two months, after which they are replaced by longer-term staff. “In two months, the team will be able to lay the foundation for a decent UNHCR presence in the eastern corridor,” said Mr. Kerblat, a veteran of 24 years of refugee operations, including emergencies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Timor, Angola, Mozambique, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Albania.

Prior to the new deployment, UNHCR had already opened offices in the southern Sudan towns of Rumbek, Juba, Yei, Kajo Keiji, Yambio, Tambura, Malakal, and Damazine.