Rate of returns to South Sudan continues to increase

August 21, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A month and a half after South Sudan gained independence the rate of returns to the nascent country, from its new neighbour Sudan, continue to increase.

Between August 10 and 16 some 4,880 returnees were registered as arriving in Africa’s 54th nation. Since the end of June an average of 4,500 people have arrived in South Sudan each week, bring the total returnees since October last year to over 333,000.

South Sudan has offered citizenship to northern Sudanese who wish to remain in the new state but the status of South Sudanese remaining in the North is far from clear with many senior government officials indicating they would not be welcome after July 9, when the South seceded.

All state employees from South Sudan have been relieved of their positions, with exceptions made in some cases.

Many Southern Sudanese returned to the region last year in order to take part in the January referendum that secured the region’s separation with an overwhelming 98 percent vote for independence.

The comprehensive result of the vote has been used by some northern officials to argue that Southern Sudanese should return to the South as they have rejected living in a united country.

Some southerners however are reluctant to leave Khartoum where there are better prospects for work, education and other services in comparison with the underdeveloped South

Citizenship issues were one of the major points of post-independence discussions between the two country’s. Khartoum announced that it would revoke citizenship for all southern Sudanese.

The possibility of stricter Islamic laws being introduced as part of Sudan’s new constitution also concerns South Sudanese who remain in the North most of whom are Christian or practice traditional African beliefs.

The bulk of new arrivals, according to the UN, have entered South Sudan through the Upper Nile corridor, which is the northern most tip of South Sudan. The UN says that: “Humanitarian actors remain concerned about the capacity for onward transport, which is currently insufficient to deal with the rate of new arrivals” in the town of Renk on the White Nile.

UN agencies and other humanitarian actors are attempting to provide for the needs of the returnees.

(ST)