IOM and the Southern Sudanese Relief and Rehabilitation Commission
(SSRRC) have completed the return of more than 7,000 Southern
Sudanese from the north to their homes in Southern Sudan.

Two IOM convoys of 13 barges each have provided return
assistance to men, women and children who remained stranded more
than three months at the river port of Kosti on their way to
Malakal and Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan.

The returnees had been living in overcrowded conditions in Kosti
river port after a pause in their transportation via barges, trains
and buses, arranged by the SSRRC.

The returnees are Southern Sudanese who wanted to return to
their homes in the South from the capital Khartoum and other
locations in the north, in the wake of the referendum held in
January 2011.

The first convoy carrying 2,988 people arrived in the Upper Nile
capital Malakal in early March.

A second convoy of 11 barges destined for Juba left Kosti on 16
March with more than 4,000 returnees on board. To date, seven
barges transporting more than 3,000 returnees have already arrived
in Juba. The remaining four barges are expected to sail in Juba
later this month.

Special funding for this return operation was made available
through the Common Humanitarian Fund administered by the
Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan.

As well as supporting the SSRRC to conduct the return, IOM will
be providing onward transportation assistance to help returnees
reach their places of final destination.

"We are happy that these barges have reached their final
destinations safely and the returnees can start their new lives in
the South," says Gerry Waite, IOM's Head of Juba Office in Southern
Sudan. "We believe it was important to respond to the call to
reduce the critically high numbers of Southerners who were stranded
at the Kosti. While IOM will continue its activities to support
returnees within the South, we do not plan or have funding for any
further organized assisted return operations of this sort from the
North," he concludes.

For further information, please contact:

Jill Helke

IOM Sudan

Tel: +249 183 570 802/4

E-mail: "mailto:jhelke@iom.int">jhelke@iom.int