UN repatriation plans for southern Sudanese refugees move a step forward

United Nations preparations for the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese following the end of a 21-year-long civil war in southern Sudan moved a step forward this week with a “Go and See” visit by a small group of refugees in Uganda to their home villages.

“So far, we have more than 12,000 persons registered for return home,” the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Moyo, northern Uganda, Tarik Mufic, said.

“Refugees seem ready to replace their settlement in Uganda with their home area, notwithstanding the limited level of services there. We plan to start the first repatriation movement to South Sudan on 2 May following the current go-and-see visit.”

The group of 13 Sudanese refugees, including women, elders and young people, left on Tuesday to visit their home villages in Kajo Keji county, 30 kilometres from the Uganda-Sudan border.

Large-scale returns became possible earlier this month when UNHCR finalized a tripartite agreement with Sudan and Uganda on repatriation. There are some 36,000 refugees in Moyo district, out of a total of over 170,000 in Uganda.

Overall, 350,000 Sudanese fled to neighbouring countries and 4 million more were internally uprooted by the long civil war that ended in January 2005 with the signing of a peace agreement between the Government and the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which now forms part of the national administration.

Forty percent of the refugees in Uganda were born in exile and it is the only home they know. While here, they have been given plots of land to cultivate and UNHCR and its partners have provided basic services such as health, education and water. For many, the moment to return cannot come soon enough, but others are cautious and waiting to hear what the people on the go-and-see visit report.

Last month, 500 Sudanese refugees returned home from Ethiopia, the vanguard of nearly 80,000 sheltering in the East African country, under a similar tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the respective governments. The UN has also been assisting in similar repatriations from Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR).

A separate, still unresolved conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region has sent 200,000 Sudanese fleeing into eastern Chad, and internally displaced some 2 million more.