Concern is growing at the fate of thousands
of displaced Dinka tribes people attempting to return to their
homes in Sudan's Northern Bahr El Ghazal province from South
Darfur.

With the assistance of community leaders, IOM
has to date registered some 4,500 stranded internally displaced
Dinkas in the locality of Kiir Galama, on the southern banks of the
river Kiir.

"Their living conditions are desperate," said
IOM's Louis Hoffmann. "They are stranded without potable water,
adequate food or health care and have no money to move on. Their
situation is set to worsen as more displaced people arrive in Kiir
Galama on a daily basis."

In response to a request from the governor of
Northern Bahr El Ghazal and in coordination with the UN, IOM
yesterday organized the first land convoy from Kiir Galama to
assist a group of 321 displaced Dinkas to return to their places of
origin in the region of Jaac, some 40 kilometres south in the
central highlands of Northern Bahr El Ghazal province.

While many had walked from South Darfur to the
Kiir River, the remaining group was too distressed to make the last
part of the voyage on foot.

They are part of a much larger group of tens
of thousands of fellow tribes people who were displaced by conflict
and drought in South Sudan to South Darfur 19 years ago and who
were again displaced by the fighting in Darfur in 2003.

Since the signing of the comprehensive peace
agreement between Khartoum and the Sudanese People's Liberation
Movement in January 2005, more and more internally displaced people
have been making their way home to South Sudan.

With little wealth after having lost their
possessions in their initial flight to Darfur and again deprived of
any assets by the conflict in Darfur, their journey home is proving
to be long and difficult as they are forced to sell whatever they
can to pay for train and truck fees to take them home.

This week IOM will open a way station at
Samaha to provide basic facilities such as water, sanitation, and
shelter for the displaced Dinkas.

"We are running against time as many more
displaced people will want to return to Northern Bahr El Ghazal
province before the onset of the rainy season," added IOM's Louis
Hoffmann. "Once the rains begin, roads will increasingly become
impassable, and reintegration at a community level will prove too
difficult to support returns until later in the year when the rains
end."

IOM has also opened an office at Ed Daein in
order to track the spontaneous returns and to monitor the
vulnerability of groups travelling home, information which will
also be used for planning return and reintegration programmes for
the displaced upon arrival at their final destinations.

As part of a wider assistance programme to
help internally displaced people (IDPs) who wish to return to their
homes in South Sudan, IOM has already established a way station in
Kadugli in South Kordofan province which is providing clean water,
sanitation, shelter, hygiene and emergency health care and
referral.

For further information, please contact:

Louis Hoffmann

Tel: +882 16433 38260

Email: "mailto:lhoffmann@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">lhoffmann@iom.int