An estimated 77,996 people returned to south Sudan in the six weeks up to Dec. 15 - UN OCHA
JUBA, Sudan (AlertNet) - After an arduous three-week journey by road and barge, Rosa Abawo finally made it to her south Sudan homeland -- just one of tens of thousands flocking back ahead of next month's historic vote on independence.
"I have come home because this is my motherland," said Abawo, 33, a widow, who has spent 22 years in the northern capital Khartoum.
But the journey which took her from Khartoum to the port city of Kosti, on the banks of the River Nile, and then on to Juba, drained Abawo of all her money.
Like many others she is now stranded in Juba, forced to camp out in the open with dozens of other families beside the port where women and children sat on metal bed frames or mats with their luggage piled high around them. Trees provided some shelter from the scorching sun.
An estimated 77,996 people returned to south Sudan in the six weeks up to Dec. 15, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordinating agency, OCHA.
The rate of return is increasingly rapidly, with one third of new arrivals coming in the last week.
Most of those migrating from the northern capital, Khartoum, to south Sudan are children under the age of 18, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Some are also being driven out of Khartoum by uncertainty about their citizenship rights or possible violence in the north after the vote on whether the south should secede or stay in Sudan. The referendum is part of a 2005 peace deal to end a two-decade north-south civil war.
"We have increased numbers of stranded returnees. You get people whose resources are exhausted at a certain stage in the journey. This is not a sign of a planned or particularly thought through return,” said Gerry Waite, head of IOM in south Sudan.
“As the motivation for returning becomes perhaps less pull, more push, then the dynamics of the returns changes somewhat. People don’t necessarily bring with them the assets that they need.”
DISEASE FEARS
An estimated four million southerners were uprooted by the fighting, millions of them taking shelter in ramshackle slums and refugee camps around Khartoum.
Now that they are back in the underdeveloped south, the living conditions for many of them are, if anything, worse.
Many returnees have become stranded in transit sites, unable to complete their journeys because they have run out of money or there's no onward transport to take them to their villages. A lack of water and adequate sanitation pose health risks, aid agencies say.
"The health of returnees is increasingly becoming a concern due to congestion and overcrowded conditions at transit centres, limited WASH (water and sanitation) facilities at some sites and the strain of the journey on returnees,” OCHA reported in its weekly update.
“There are growing concerns about possible disease outbreaks.”
Although a large number of people have come back on convoys organised by south Sudan's semi-autonomous government, about half those streaming home are like Abawo -- travelling back without government assistance.
The areas receiving the greatest number of returnees are the states on the north-south border, such as Warrap, Unity and Upper Nile. These areas were worst affected in the conflict.
OCHA described the situation in Kwajok, the capital of Warrap State as “worrying” with more than 10,500 people arriving in one week under the government’s programme, which had aimed to provide free transport to 1.5 million southerners living in the north over a few months.
“More than 7,000 of these returnees have chosen to remain in Kwajok – or are stranded there without onward transportation – outstripping local absorption capacities,” OCHA said.
The government and humanitarian agencies are determined to ensure that people reach their final destinations to prevent the emergence of displaced people’s camps.
"(We) do not want to see large camps being established that end up staying year after year and very difficult to get rid of. Our whole approach is to disincentivise that process," said Lise Grande, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for south Sudan.
One way is to provide the bulk of humanitarian assistance, such as three-month food rations and household items, to returnees once they reach their final destinations.
Meanwhile, IOM has a tracking system in north and south Sudan to monitor the movement of returnees so that it can target aid where it's needed most. The group is also provides free transport as a safety net to those who are stranded.
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