Displaced returning home in continuous stream

The humanitarian situation at the moment is characterised by “the continuous move of displaced people from the forests and resettlements of former refugees to their respective homes and villages”, a UNICEF report stated on Tuesday. It said this was especially so in areas where security was guaranteed. Some 200,000 people internally displaced during the civil war were expected to return home by April or May of this year, encouraged by a decline in military activities and the December 1999 ceasefire accords between the government and opposition parties. With about 370,000 people having already returned in January, that would bring the figures of returned IDPs to some 600,000 - or roughly three-quarters of those displaced throughout the country during late 1998 and 1999, the report said.