UNHCR returns to south Sudan on peace hopes
NAIROBI, March 17 (Reuters) – Encouraged by progress in peace talks between the Sudanese government and southern rebels, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday it has returned to south Sudan after an absence of 14 years.
“It’s the first time in 14 years that this particular agency, the UNHCR has re-established its presence in southern Sudan,” UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey said.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 150,000 Sudanese refugees could return to the south within the first 18 months after a peace accord between the Islamist government and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) is reached.
UNHCR Inspector General Dennis McNamara said U.N. landmine and security teams were in south Sudan’s Equatoria region to assess routes that could be used by convoys to bring refugees home.
In the past two weeks, a U.N. team has also visited Sudanese refugees in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Kenya to make preparations for their return home.
However, McNamara added refugees would only be willing to return to their war-scarred homeland if they see real security on the ground.
McNamara said the refugees the agency met voiced concerns about militias, landmines and small arms in south Sudan.
Two decades of war in Sudan has killed two million people and uprooted more than three million people inside the country, while a further 600,000 are living as refugees in neighbouring Uganda, Chad, Ethiopia, the DRC and Kenya.
Peace talks in Kenya between the government and the SPLM, also know as the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) were extended until March 22 on Tuesday, to help the two parties reach agreement on the twin outstanding issues of power sharing and the status of three contested areas.
Rebels from the largely animist and Christian south have fought for greater autonomy from the Islamist government in the Arab speaking north since 1983. Disputes over oil, ethnicity and ideology have complicated the conflict.