10,000 refugees return to southern Sudan – UN

July 8, 2006 (NAIROBI) — The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday the number of refugees repatriated to southern Sudan under UN-backed program passed 10,000 this week.

In a statement, the UNHCR lauded the figure as a modest landmark in the efforts to bring home some 350,000 people who fled two decades of civil war that formally ended in early 2005 with a peace agreement between the government and rebels.

“A milestone was reached earlier this week, when the 10,000th refugee to be repatriated by UNHCR to southern Sudan under a program launched in December, returned home on a convoy from Uganda,” the statement said.

The statement said the convoy, which arrived on Tuesday, was carrying 262 refugees from Moyo in northern Uganda.

This latest convoy brought the number of UNHCR-assisted returnees to 10,113.

After delays last year due to security and logistical concerns, UNHCR began repatriating Sudanese from neighboring countries also including Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC), and the Central African Republic in December and the rate of returns has been steady since then.

Apart from the refugees in neighboring countries, more than 4 million Sudanese were displaced internally by the decades-long war in the south.

(ST/Xinhua)