Challenges of returning home

Martha Atoch, a displaced widow and mother of four, was anxious to leave Lologo transit camp and return home so she could get treatment for appendicitis.

"I have told the administrators of this camp that I need urgent help for my appendicitis," she said. "But so many of us have medical problems that I don't know whether my case will receive any attention."

Atoch has lived in Lologo, 30 km southeast of the southern Sudanese capital of Juba, since July. With the rainy season about to end, she expects to be able to return to her home area in Bor, Upper Nile State, soon.

"Perhaps I will get help when I get the medical screening later this month in readiness for our departure for home," she said.

Atoch is one of at least 1,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is arranging to return to Bor area. She lives with other IDPs from Yambio in Western Equatoria State and Yei in Central Equatoria State.

The return is being organised by UNHCR with the International Organization for Migration and NGOs such as Islamic Relief.

A north-south peace agreement signed in January 2005 ended 21 years of war in Sudan, paving the way for the return of hundreds of thousands of IDPs and refugees displaced by the war into several neighbouring countries.

David Gressly, UN Deputy Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for southern Sudan

"The story of southern Sudan now is of people going home," David Gressly, the UN deputy resident and humanitarian coordinator in southern Sudan, said. "This is the best story [to come out of] the country in the recent past."

However, Gressly, who is based in Juba, said a lot of work remains to be done in terms of supporting those returning as well as IDPs.

With up to four million IDPs and 500,000 refugees returning home annually, humanitarian activities in Sudan have picked up, especially in southern Sudan. But international and media attention has shifted to yet another volatile area of the vast country - the Darfur region.

Services stretched

Sudan has the largest IDP population in the world, Gressly said. This creates enormous challenges for humanitarian actors in providing basic services such as food, shelter, healthcare and education to the IDPs, returnees and host communities.

"Those coming are returning to areas with no services, by and large," he said. "If we were to provide the appropriate level of support for water, for example, even if we defined it as one borehole for 500 people, which is not a good standard, we would need about 20,000 boreholes to be built in southern Sudan."

The most pressing needs of the returnees and IDPs are food, shelter, water, healthcare and education. The situation will be particularly acute during the return season, which starts soon.

"We have a return season - basically the dry season - from November to May," Gressly said. "January to March is hot, with temperatures ranging from 45-50 degrees. We are hoping, during this time, to de-mine roads. We have funding through the mission and donors to survey and clear nearly 12,000 km of roads."

The decades-long war between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) and Sudanese army resulted in the mining of many areas in the south and this was made worse by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which had bases in southern Sudan during its 20-year insurgency against the Ugandan government, but is still relatively low.

"South Sudan is not heavily mined," Gressly added. "There is a perception that it is, but it is not. For example, we find on average one mine for every four kilometres of road surveyed. Certain areas are heavily concentrated."

More offices

In readiness for greater numbers of returnees in 2006 and 2007, UNHCR has opened offices in areas expected to receive the most people and has begun building up services there to support sustainable reintegration.

"We have done this by investing more than [US] $7 million in community-based reintegration projects, principally in health, education and water/sanitation in Eastern Equatoria, Western Equatoria, and Upper Nile, as well as in Lakes State, Central Equatoria, and Jonglei," Bhairaja Panday, the UNHCR deputy representative for south Sudan, said.

The investment has also paid for the construction of way stations to ensure returning refugees and IDPs have safe places to rest on their way home. UNHCR has nine offices in six states in southern Sudan, largely engaged in preparing for the returnees. So far this year, UNHCR has assisted 13,420 refugees to voluntarily return to various areas of southern Sudan.

"Although this figure is lower than expected or planned, it still marks substantial progress given the tremendous insecurity during the earlier part of this year in many areas where UNHCR is operating, as well as unforeseen events such as the closing of the border between Central African Republic and southern Sudan," Panday said. "With improved transportation links and infrastructure to support returns, UNHCR is planning to bring back an additional 38,000 refugees by the end of the 2006 and 112,000 in 2007."

However, achieving these results, he said, would depend on whether the agency receives the necessary funding. "UNHCR still requires $8 million to keep its operations running and its offices open in southern Sudan until the end of the year," Panday noted.

More people coming

The number of returnees to southern Sudan increased significantly two years before the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005. "We started seeing significant movement of people in 2004, and this has continued in 2005 and 2006," Gressly said. "These are rough estimates because it is impossible to get an exact count. Approximately 450,000 people are coming from the north to the 10 states of southern Sudan. Returnees are a major part of the work [done] here."

The south Sudan repatriation operation is one of the few "bright spots in a strife-torn region struggling to cope with enormous suffering and displacement - in Darfur, Chad, the Central African Republic and elsewhere", UNHCR said in a statement in September.

To a large extent, returnees have increased in southern Sudan due to a marked improvement in the security situation.

"In general, we have very good access in southern Sudan; the best since the war began," Gressly said. "We have one location where we have a restriction of staff going in - a small village in Northern Bahr el-Gazal State - because of clan fighting. Such clan-based cattle-raiding is very localised and we can work around it."

The current period had provided the most access in southern Sudan for a long time. Gressly added: "We need to organise ourselves correctly in 2006-07; to support directly about a quarter of a million people coming back, and to reintegrate another quarter of a million or so people who return either spontaneously or are supported."

LRA factor

Despite improved access, the presence of the LRA in parts of southern Sudan has meant that some areas have not become fully accessible for humanitarian work.

The rebels have waged a 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda - which borders Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria - as well as in southern Sudan.

But since mid-2006, hopes for peace in rebel-affected areas have increased with talks ongoing between the Ugandan government and the LRA in Juba, under the mediation of the vice-president of southern Sudan, Riek Machar.

Gressly said the rebels had hindered the movement of returnees and IDPs mostly in the Eastern Equatoria areas of Magwi, Parajok and Puger. "Last September, the LRA started being very active and moving westwards. They caused a great deal of problems across the southern parts - it became highly insecure, you could not move without armed escort," he said.

Since talks began between the southern Sudanese government and the LRA in April, there had been a marked reduction in acts of aggression against civilians.

"It was a very difficult environment for us to work in - actually more dangerous here at that time than it was in Darfur," he said, adding that nine humanitarian workers died there before the talks. "Now the situation is changed, we are finding more difficulties in Darfur but we are now able to operate in this area.

"We hope a comprehensive settlement will solve the problem not only for northern Uganda but also for southern Sudan. People think of it as a northern Ugandan problem but it has significant spillover into southern Sudan," Gressly added.

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