Tens of thousands of displaced returning to Bahr al-Ghazal

An increasing number of southern Sudanese who were displaced to northern Sudan by decades of war are returning south in advance of a peace agreement, rebel officials say. According to the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SRRC), the humanitarian wing of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), between January and March 2004 over 108,000 southerners returned to areas of Bahr al-Ghazal. These comprised 4,700 to Abyei, over 8,000 to Aweil East, 44,400 to Aweil North, over 28,000 to Aweil West and 23,500 to Twic County. "Significant IDP [internally displaced person] returns are already a reality in northern Bahr al-Ghazal," said an SRRC report made available to IRIN on Thursday. "People are not waiting for peace signatures." The numbers of returnees had been increasing steadily since the beginning of 2004, with 20,000 people returning to Aweil North in March, compared with 6,000 in January, the SRRC commissioner, Elijah Malok, reported. The returnees had come from Khartoum, other cities in northern Sudan, rural areas and camps for displaced people in Darfur. Only those who had returned in lorries and carts through main entry points had been registered, Malok reported, noting that "large movements on foot were unrecorded". Malok was a member of an SPLM/A-UN fact-finding mission to the region in late April. Sudan has between 3 million and 4 million displaced, many of whom fled for their lives from conflict, while many others - especially those in and around the capital, Khartoum - are economic migrants. With no reliable population statistics available for Sudan as a whole, and certainly no accurate statistics on the numbers of IDPs, or whether and when they may choose to return, much of the necessary planning for their return has been based on assumptions. The SRRC figures are not independently verifiable. The SRRC estimates that in the next six months alone, and despite the rainy season, over 200,000 more people could return to southern Sudan through northern Bahr al-Ghazal, which could lead to a humanitarian crisis. "Current and routine programming responses by the authorities and agencies are inadequate," said Malok. "They need to be rapidly accelerated and matched by a corresponding early donor commitment if current return movements are to be dignified and sustainable, and to avoid a possible disaster in the next six months." Local authorities felt there had been "a plethora of assessments and planning trips" over recent months, and were keen to see a rapid upscaling of agency activities, the report said. "Whilst SRRC and UN planning has progressed, the reality in terms of action in the areas of the return is disappointing and worrying," it continued. The SRRC said it was essential to immediately improve services in the areas to which the returnees were moving, including water availability, health services, non-food items and food support. Many of the returnees had little or no education or had been educated in Arabic, necessitating improved education services in English, it added. While UN agencies and NGOs are trying to prepare themselves for the aftermath of a peace deal in Sudan, and some donors are granting project funding for areas in advance of returnees moving there, in general, funding for development of the south has been slow. Ben Parker, the spokesman for the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, told IRIN there was a "wait-and-see posture" on the part of many donors who were reluctant to pledge money for long-term projects until a comprehensive peace deal had been signed by the government and the SPLM/A.