Repatriation of refugees to start next week

The voluntary repatriation of southern Sudanese refugees who have lived in neighbouring Uganda for decades will begin next week, thanks to better security in the region, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday. Security in Sudan has improved, following the signing in 2005 of a peace agreement between the Khartoum-based government and the former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the south, which ended two decades of civil war. The SPLM is now a partner in Sudan's government of national unity and administers southern Sudan. The first UNHCR-assisted returns, scheduled to start earlier this month, were put on hold after two attacks on UN compounds in southern Sudan in March by suspected elements of the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army. "The security situation in the areas where UNHCR is repatriating have been assessed as being safe," said Roberta Russo, the agency's spokeswoman in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. UNHCR estimated that up to 10,000 Sudanese would be repatriated from Uganda this year, beginning with 160 refugees who would return to the Kajo Keji area - near the border between the two countries - on 2 May. UNHCR said they decided to return following a recent visit to Uganda by a Sudanese delegation from Kajo Keji County. The visit gave the refugees a chance to ask delegates questions about what to expect in their homeland and raise concerns. It enabled them to make voluntary and informed decisions about returning, Russo said. "For many of the refugees, the moment to return cannot come soon enough, but others are cautious and are waiting to hear what the people on the go-and-see visit report," said Russo. Uganda hosts at least 170,000 registered Sudanese refugees. A large-scale return became possible earlier this month when UNHCR finalised a tripartite agreement with Sudan and Uganda on repatriation. Up to 27,000 refugees have registered to return from Uganda, but many are from areas that are still unsafe, Russo said. About 40 percent of the refugees were born in Uganda, where Ugandan authorities have given them plots of land to cultivate. UNHCR and other relief agencies have provided basic services such as health, education and water. There are an estimated 613,000 southern Sudanese refugees around the world, and some 4.5 million people are displaced within Sudan.