UNHCR urges swift donor response to support returnees in the south

The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, has appealed to donors to contribute to rehabilitation and reintegration projects in the conflict-ravaged south to forestall a potential humanitarian crisis as millions of refugees and internally displaced persons prepare to return home. Wendy Chamberlain, UNHCR's acting high commissioner asked for "funding to prevent suffering - to prevent a crisis when refugees go back" when she addressed a news briefing about her recent tour of the region in Geneva on Friday. The signing in January of a peace accord between the government of Sudan and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army brought an end to more than two decades of conflict in the region, opening the door for millions of southern Sudanese to return home. Relief agencies have expressed concerns that hasty repatriations could create a humanitarian crisis as the region lacks the infrastructure to cope with large numbers of returnees. "UNHCR is there working collaboratively with other agencies to put into place the infrastructure that would make it a welcoming environment in which the refugees could anchor," Chamberlain said. "But right now, if they all moved en masse, that infrastructure is not there." The commissioner advised the 550,000 refugees living in Sudan's neighbouring countries that they should wait until the infrastructure was ready before returning to their homes. UNHCR's budget for 2005 for southern Sudan is approximately US $62 million, but so far, the programme has received no funds. Chamberlain said certain donors, such as the US and the Netherlands, had indicated that they would contribute, but that much more was still needed. "The crisis isn't there yet, which makes it harder to galvanise donations, but it is just as important," she added. Earlier this month Chamberlain visited southern Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, where she was able to survey the devastation and enormous rehabilitation needs facing the region. She said the refugees main concerns about returning home were food, land, water, health services and education. For the refugees in Kenya's Kakuma camp, "education was perhaps the largest concern". UNHCR has several education programmes in the camp. "There has not been a significant number of returnees from the Kenyan camps to Sudan," Emmanuel Nyabera, spokesman for UNHCR in Kenya told IRIN on Tuesday. "In fact, there are still refugees coming into the camps from Sudan." Nyabera said preparations had already begun for repatriation from Kenya, with an emergency UNHCR team being deployed to southern Sudan last week to assess conditions and identify the most urgent rehabilitation and reintegration needs. "We are training 500 teachers in Kakuma to go home and help their communities and are also involved in mine awareness training, considering the serious landmine problem facing the region," he added. However, he emphasised that the main priority of UNHCR was not to rush the process, but to ensure that the repatriations were organised and dignified. "Right now we are creating awareness among the refugees about the situation in the south, so that they can make informed decisions about returning home," Nyabera said. "We do not have a schedule for repatriation, but are hoping to have started by the last quarter of 2005," he added. Kenya hosts an estimated 68,000 refugees from southern Sudan. Chamberlain recently announced that UNHCR would begin work with the German development agency, GTZ, to rebuild roads between southern Sudan and northern Uganda, which hosts 187,000 Sudanese refugees. The agency plans to start an information campaign for the refugees in Uganda in June, including "go-and-see" visits by refugee groups to southern Sudan. The 21-year war in Sudan's south virtually destroyed the region, killing an estimated two million people and displacing another 4.5 million. It is hoped that the recent peace deal will bring calm, enabling crucial development to begin.