Report Details Post-Peace Agreement Returns to Southern Sudan
An estimated 1.7 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have
successfully returned to Southern Sudan since the signing of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005, according to
IOM’s latest report on the tracking of spontaneous returns.
The report, which was compiled with the support of the South Sudan
Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) of the Government of
South Sudan, and in cooperation with the United Nations Mission in
Sudan (UNMIS), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) and partner NGOs, is based on data collected by some
350 SSRRC enumerators who have interviewed some 875,000 individuals
during their return journey or in areas of returns.
It reveals that 60 per cent of returning families are headed by
single women and 59 per cent of all returnees are children and
young people aged between 5 and 17. Only 10 per cent of the
returnees are aged 60 or more.
Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Southern Kordofan have received the
largest numbers of overall returnees with 22 per cent (401,763
persons) and 16 per cent (298,098 persons) respectively,
while Eastern Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal States received
the lowest number of returnees with 53,395 returnees (3 per cent)
and 62,304 returnees (3 per cent) respectively. This information
confirms the trends shown by intention surveys on returns that IOM
carried out in 2005 and 2006 in Khartoum and elsewhere in North
Sudan.
According to the report, 75 per cent of the returnees used buses
or trucks to reach their final destination, 17 per cent walked
home, 5 per cent travelled by boat while the remaining 3 per cent
returned home by air.
"Tracking spontaneous returns, particularly at the village
level, provides important information on the reintegration needs of
vulnerable individuals and families, such as single female headed
households," says Mario Tavolaj, IOM’s Chief of Mission in
Sudan. "It also provides a system to alert our humanitarian
partners on areas that are severely affected by high levels of
returns. It also represents an important tool for planning medium-
to long-term recovery in Southern Sudan."
The March 2005 report of the Sudan Joint Assessment Mission
estimated that some 4 million people had been displaced from or
within Southern Sudan by 20 years of fighting between the northern
and southern regions of Sudan.
This report was funded by the United Nations Common Humanitarian
Fund, the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office
(ECHO), the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), the
Norwegian government and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The report is available online at
"paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.iom.int">www.iom.int.
For more information, please contact:
Alghribawy Mayssa
IOM Khartoum
Tel: +249 183 570 801 to 804
E-mail:
"mailto:malghribawy@iom.int">malghribawy@iom.int