Refugees rush home for South Sudan census – UNHCR

March 13, 2008 (JUBA) — South Sudan is seeing a
surge in returning refugees, as people rush home to be counted
in a census that has major political and economic implications
for the region struggling to rebuild after decades of war.

Five times as many people were already returning — from 600
a week at the beginning of the year to 3,000 by the beginning of
March, the U.N.’s refugee agency UNHCR said on Thursday, adding
the trend was expected to continue.

“Part of it is political. They want to be counted in the
census,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Fatoumata Kaba.

“Another factor is that if people come back now they can
arrive in time for the planting season.”

Sudan’s national census, which is set to start on April 15,
will pave the way for Sudan’s first democratic elections in 23
years.

The census results will also have an impact on how wealth is
shared between the north and the south under the terms of the
2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war.

The increase in numbers followed heavy lobbying by southern
politicians to get refugees home in time for the count, said
William Chan Acuil, deputy chairman of the Southern Sudan
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Commission.

“They have to come and be counted, not only for political
reasons but also for their own benefit,” said Acuil.

Many former exiles were returning from neighbouring Kenya,
Ethiopia and Uganda said the UNHCR.

A recent report by the lobby group Refugees International
said only a “fraction” of the south’s estimated 2 million
returnees had received adequate assistance.

Africa’s longest civil war, fought over issues of ethnicity,
religion, ideology and oil, killed more than 2 million people
and drove more than 4 million from their homes.

(Reuters)