Ugandan refugees to be flown back home from Sudan

KHARTOUM, Oct 8 (AFP) — Thirty-four Ugandan refugees in Sudan will be flown back home on Thursday in a voluntary repatriation to be carried out by Sudanese and international relief agencies, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.

The refugees will be flown to Entebbe, north Uganda, via Nairobi and then continue overland to their final destinations, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, adding that they will be awarded cash grants.

Another 218 Ugandan refugees have been repatriated in similar operations since July, the UNCHR said, noting that the majority of those refugees have been residing in Juba, the main city in southern Sudan, since the mid-1960s.

About half a million Ugandan refugees returned home in previous repatriation operations that were carried out in 1986, 1992 and 2002, the UNHCR said.

It said it would send a mission to Juba next week to “follow up on the repatriation of the remaining Ugandan refugees as well as Congolese refugees who wish to return to their respective countries”, hit by civil conflicts.

Involved in the repatriation effort are the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Sudanese Commission for Refugees, and the Ugandan embassy in Khartoum.