Commissioner on Sudan-Uganda border urges refugees to return home
December 12, 2008 (JUBA) — The commissioner of Kajo Keji County in Southern Sudan recently toured refugee settlements in northern Uganda to urge Sudanese refugees to take the decision to return home. The Kajo Keji county seat is 30 kilometres from the Uganda-Sudan border and 130 km from Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan.
The Central Equatorian county fell to the advancing Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in February 1990. But the area remained a battleground during the following period, when government forces allied with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) were again ascendant, holding Kajo Keji from 1994 to May 1997. Periodic abductions and other atrocities perpetrated by the LRA have continued in the area until recently.
While on a two-day visit to refugee settlements in Moyo and Adjumani in Uganda early this month Commissioner Muki Batali reminded Sudanese refugees about their responsibility in the forthcoming elections, which he described as a very important turning point for the people of South Sudan.
In the Moyo and Adjumani settlements there are over 20,000 refugees, mostly from Central and Eastern Equatoria States. Batali’s visit to the settlements was organized with the collaboration of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), which has offices in both Sudan and Uganda. According to UNHCR, Ugandan officials, particularly the Office of the Prime Minister, took part in the mass information campaign to sensitize refugees to the possibility of returning home.
The Ugandan officials advised refugees to disregard rumors about poor social services in South Sudan and return home to participate in the development of their country.
Commissioner Batali stressed that “UNHCR is ready to assist you now to repatriate and reintegrate in your home areas in South Sudan.”
“What brought you here was war, not lack of food or materials. The war is over, so there is no need for you to prolong your stay,” said Batali, responding to concerns raised by refugees about job security and education for their children in South Sudan.
Repatriation to South Sudan has resumed after the rainy season, with convoys arriving from Kenya and Uganda, according to a UNHCR statement. The aid agency said that repatriation is “gathering momentum” and that it plans to work with its partners to bring home some 54,000 Sudanese refugees from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia during 2009.
Some 290,000 refugees have returned to Sudan since the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended one of Sudan’s civil wars. UNHCR assisted about half of these refugees to return home. Additionally, more than two million southern Sudanese internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned to their homes since the signing of the peace agreement.
(ST)