Northern Bahr el Ghazal receives over 6,700 displaced from north Sudan

By Ngor Arol Garang

December 15, 2010 (ABYEI) – Southern officials say that dozens of trucks and buses carrying approximately 6,735 internally displaced persons from the northern states have begun arriving in the town of Aweil town, capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal.

Sudan’s south is preparing to hold a referendum on January 9 that could see the oil-producing region break away from the north as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of conflict.

On the same day, a referendum is due to take place in the north-south border region of Abyei, but the vote has been put in jeopardy as the parties to the peace deal have not been able to agree who will be allowed to vote.

The voluntarily return operation is arranged by local authorities with the funding from regional Government of Southern Sudan, which intends to repatriate tens of thousands of people who forced to flee the south during the conflict.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that over 55,000 southerners have returned to the south in the two months.

Speaking to Sudan Tribune from Aweil town, capital of the state two days after arrival, Aguer Kuol Deng, one of the returning internally displaced persons, who lived in the north for nearly 16 years, says is pleased to have returned to witness how the referendum will be conducted.

“I am very happy and sincerely thank our government of northern Bahr el Ghazal and all those who have helped in one way or the other in returning us,” said Aguer, who encouraging eligible voters to cast their vote during the actual voting.

At least 60% of registered voters must cast and ballot in the poll in order for the vote to be valid under referendum law.

He says the journey took many days, traveling over bad roads jammed onto one of the packed buses heading south. It was not a pleasant journey, Aguer said but it was worth the hardship.

“It was long and tiresome journey but no one minds about difficulties we faced on our way because we were finally coming home. What we minds a lot was our return. Some of us have been away for quite too long. I personally spent 16 years away since I left while young. I remember my father telling me that we left Mathiang Akot Kuol when I was about 8 or 10 years old. I cannot exactly remember my age that time,” explained Aguer.

Aguer says that completing university in northern Sudan was one of the positive things that came with living in the north despite the reason for him living there.

“In this case, one of the successes counted on my father and mother is my education. I would have not achieved anything if they did not exert their efforts to put me and other siblings to school despites challenges we under went in the internally displaced camps.”

Living in the internally displaced camps in the north was not easy says Aguer, whose “mother was arrested 16 times for brewing local alcohol by the national police and security elements”, although his father “worked hard” to ensue that each time she was released.

North Sudan has been governed by Islamic, Sharia Law since 1983 and its implementation in the mainly Christian south was one of the reasons the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) began its rebellion against the Khartoum governments.

Deng Dut Aliel, an official from northern Bahr el Ghazal charged with registration and returning procedures of the internally displaced persons in all northern states including the war torn western region of Darfur, told Sudan Tribune that a lot of southerners of returned to register for the referendum.

“So far, 6,735 have returned. We are also getting reports more other people ready to return home in the northern States and Darfur. The 6,735 I have given to you is the number of those living in Khartoum and neighboring states of Gezira, Northern Kordofan,” explained Aliel.

Reverend Stephen Mayuen Mou, an Episcopal Secretary General of Aweil Diocese, in Aweil said that 2,013 vehicles carrying returnees had arrived in the area.

Thanking the state government for organizing return, Mou said his church would give pastoral service to the returnees.

“As church, we thank our government for organizing such a massive return of our people and will do our best in term of pastoral services. We support this initiative and remain standing besides government to do more than this,” he commented.

(ST)