AFRICA/SUDAN - Voluntary repatriation of refugees from Kenya to South Sudan starts today

Khartoum (Fides Service) - The United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNHCR announced that the voluntary repatriation to South Sudan of refugees from Kakuma camp in north west Kenya starts today Saturday 17 December
UNHCR expects that in the coming week only a small number, not more that 150 people, will be repatriated but the start of an official repatriation programme is a sign that people want to go home and that the agency is willing to help them in this endeavour. The returnees will be transferred either by air or land .
On the 17th refugees will be repatriated on two passenger flights from Kakuma and Bor (Jongley state). On arrival they will find their belongings moved the day before on a cargo flight.
The same day a convoy of buses for the refugees and trucks for their belongings will leave the camp and reach Nadapal in south Sudan, where the repatriates will be welcomed by the south Sudan authorities. Soon after arriving in south Sudan the convoy will split and one half will go to Kapoeta and the other to Chukudum, both in East Equatoria. UNHCR will supply the repatriates with aid and tools for survival and two-week food supplies until about January when the UN World Food Programme will be able to offer more aid to repatriates in south Sudan.
Civil war in south Sudan which lasted for 21 years ended with a peace agreement signed in January this year. Even before the agreement was reached UNHCR worked with other UN agencies and NGOs to help southern Sudan prepare to receive returnees.
In the next few years Sudan can expect the return of about half a million refugees in other countries and about 4 million internally displaced persons. Some refugees, particularly those in DR Congo returned on their own, but many others, - in Kenya for example - show more caution aware that structures and services in the south are insufficient. Services and basic infrastructures in this area for a long time a scene of war were never sufficient and those which did exist were destroyed by war.
In collaboration with other agencies UNHCR undertakes programmes which involve whole communities making no distinction between residents who never left and returnees. To help people resume normal life UNHCR has built schools, training centres, hospitals and dug wells. These new services aim to encourage development and promote reconciliation between returnees and local communities.
Earlier this month UNHCR took delegations of refugees from Kakuma in south Sudan on “go and see visits” - in view of repatriation. Kakuma camp has about 72,000 refugees. The main asylum countries for Sudanese refugees are Uganda (204,400), Ethiopia (90,500), Democratic Congo (69.400), Kenya (74.000), Central African Republic (36,000), Egypt (30,324) and Eritrea (714). (Agenzia Fides 17/12/2005 righe parole)