5,000 southern Sudanese refugees returned from Ethiopia in 2008

December 25, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — Around 5,000 refugees have been voluntarily repatriated from Ethiopia to southern Sudan this year, the Ethiopian authorities said yesterday.

The United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Refugees Organization (IRO) repatriated 5120 refugees from camps in the Gambela region, western Ethiopia.

The (Ethiopian) Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) said it plans to to move home during the next year more than 50% of the 22,000 refugees, who are living in Fugnido Refugee Camp.

Tow camps located in Dimma and Bonga in western Ethiopia have already been closed after the rehabilitation of refuges.

The total of the Sudanese refugees in Gambella in 2006 reached 58000 people. However since more than 35000 have returned to their home in southern Sudan during 2006-2007.

Some two million people died and another six million were displaced in Sudan’s 21-year-old conflict that ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005.

(ST)