As part of the Joint Organized Return Plan coordinated and
implemented by the Government of National Unity (GoNU), the
Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), the United Nations Mission in
Sudan (UNMIS) and IOM, the first overland IOM convoy assisting
South Sudanese to return home since the end of this year's rainy
season will depart early morning on 1 December from Omdurman El
Salam Departure Centre on the outskirts of Khartoum. Buses and
trucks will carry returnees and their belongings back home to Renk
County in Upper Nile State.

All adults and children travelling on the convoy have been
medically screened prior to departure and have received routine
vaccinations against Yellow Fever, Diphtheria/Polio/Tetanus
(DPT/OPV) and Tuberculosis (BCG) by IOM medical staff with an IOM
doctor and a nurse/midwife also accompanying the convoy.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided the returnees with a
15-day transit food ration to cover their travel needs. A further
three-month WFP food ration will be distributed at final
destinations where returnees will be met by government and UNMIS
Return Recovery and Reintegration Unit reception committees.

At the Departure Centre, the returnees have also received a
package of Non Food Items (NFIs) consisting of mosquito nets,
blankets, plastic sheeting, soap, jerry cans, and sleeping mats
from the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC).

Wrapping up this year's return operations, subsequent IOM land
convoys will also travel to Dilling and Kadugli counties in
Southern Kordofan as well as to Koch and Guit counties in Unity
State during December. A group of South Sudanese displaced will
also be taken by barge from Kosti to Malakal Town. A total of 3,500
persons are expected to be assisted home by 31 December.

IOM and its partners are also preparing the return home of
internally displaced people within South Sudan. A comprehensive
internally displaced return registration exercise funded by the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) is being conducted in
Nimule (Eastern Equatoria), and will soon begin in Labone (Eastern
Equatoria) and Kajo Keji (Central Equatoria).

Emergency funding of US$2 million from the Common Humanitarian
Fund (CHF) and additional funding by USAID has enabled IOM to
complete this year's operations to return tens of thousands of
internally displaced South Sudanese. However, US$4 million is still
urgently required for priority return operations scheduled for
early 2008 and to establish a logistics infrastructure which
entails the building or re-establishment and refurbishment of an
extensive network of departure centres and way stations that were
either dismantled or damaged during the long rainy season.

Since 2006, IOM has assisted nearly 60,500 South Sudanese
internally displaced people to return to Southern Sudan and
Southern Kordofan by land, barge and air as part of the Joint
Organized Return Plan.

For further information, please contact:

Simona Opitz

IOM Khartoum

Tel: + 249 (0)912330700

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