United Nations sends aid workers to Sudan to prepare for refugees

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 05, 2004 (AP) — The United Nations has sent aid workers to Sudan to prepare for the hundreds of thousands of refugees expected to return home if the government signs a peace deal with southern rebels, a U.N. spokesman said Monday.

The United Nations estimates that Sudan’s 20-year civil war has uprooted about 5 million people, about 1 million of them fleeing to neighboring Uganda, Chad, Ethiopia and Kenya. Talks to end the civil war are on in Kenya between the government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The eight workers, sent by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, have met with officials in the capital, Khartoum, as well as in southern Sudan, a U.N. statement said.

In December, the government and rebel leaders agreed on how to divide the country’s oil revenue, an issue that had been a major stumbling block to peace. Tentative plans envisage a six-year transitional period, a referendum on self-determination for southerners, and a democratic Sudan where human rights are respected.