Thousands of South Sudanese returning from Khartoum to less developed rural areas receive assistance from NRC to find livelihoods opportunities and access basic services.
High-rise buildings, factories and city jobs are not to be found in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal (NBeG) and Warrap, two states bordering the northern part of Sudan in the soon-to-be independent nation of South Sudan. Here, most people walk on dirt roads instead of asphalt, ride donkeys instead of in cars, and live in tukuls instead of brick houses. Khartoum and Aweil, the state capital of NBeG, are only a journey of a few days from each other but a world apart in terms of lifestyle.
"My mother worked in a factory, my husband was a construction worker, and myself, I was a house maid in Khartoum," says Angelina Ajok Athian (34).
She is sitting on a plastic chair outside her new home, a temporary emergency shelter made out of grass mats and plastic sheets in Apada, a transit site for returnees in the outskirts of Aweil. What used to be an empty field until late last year has now turned into an informal settlement with some 18,000 people who have returned from the northern parts of Sudan.
Lack of schools
When the busses with returnees started arriving in December last year, NRC, in collaboration with the local authorities, quickly set up communal emergency shelters so that people could have a roof over their heads for a few days before they moved on to the villages they once had left due to hunger and civil war.
"The original expectation of the authorities was that people would quickly return to their places of origin. However, most of the returnees prefer to stay close to the town of Aweil where education and job opportunities seem to be better," says Quentin Le Gallo, NRC acting Area Manager in NBeG.
Angelina, who has eight children between one and a half and eighteen years of age, explains:
"I prefer staying at this temporary site, because my relatives tell me that there are no education opportunities in the village where I grew up. Here, my youngest children can attend the local primary school, and the older ones can go to secondary school in town. Government officials have told us to move to a permanent site, but I do not want to leave until I am sure that my family will have access to basic services," she says.
New livelihoods opportunities
In the past six months, around 65,000 people have returned to Northern Bahr el-Ghazal. Currently, there are five large transit sites occupied by the returnees in this state, that has received the majority of the returnees so far.
"NRC is working in close collaboration with the government, UN and NGOs to provide livelihoods opportunities for the returnees. There is a great potential to become more self-reliant and less dependent on aid by increasing people's basic agriculture skills. At the same time, it is important that we also capitalize on the skills that the returnees have gained by working in urban areas in the North. This will contribute to develop new market opportunities for South Sudan, where most of the goods and supplies are coming in from the North or imported from Kenya and Uganda," Le Gallo says.
Informed decisions
At the big open space between the shelters in Apada, some of the returnees have set up small stalls where they sell tea and other products, to have a little income until they settle somewhere permanent. Young girls in city clothing are walking around to the music beat from a couple of guys with a stereo. George Tong Ganang (34) is eagerly approaching NRC to ask if there may be any work opportunities.
"My family fled to Darfur when I was ten. After having lived in camps there for many years, we felt that it would be safer to find shelter in South Kordofan. But, because of the ongoing fighting there, I have now returned to Aweil," he says.
Through its Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance programme, NRC is supporting the returnees in making informed decisions on where to settle and how to adjust to new ways of living and obtain basic services from the local authorities.
On 9 July, South Sudan will become the world's youngest nations. It is one of the least developed areas in the world marked by post-conflict challenges in combination with ongoing disputes along the border to North Sudan.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
