Sudanese govt., rebels sign deal facilitating return of displaced people
NAIROBI, July 14, 2004 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed an agreement Wednesday in Nairobi to facilitate returning home of more than 500,000 war-displaced people in southern Sudan.
The government and the SPLM/A have been working for several months, and have signed a joint policy framework for the return of the displaced persons and a six-month program to support the people who choose to return, said Sulaf El Din Salif Mohammed, general commissioner for Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission.
After the signing of the deal, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A called upon the donor community to immediately make available funding to support the six month program.
The Office of UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) has also appealed for 90 million US dollars for the preparations for returning home of the displaced people.
“The UNHCR’s post-conflict strategy in southern Sudan would focus on integrating the returnees and helping them to live in peace with each other and the indigenous society,” said Emmanuel Nyabera, the UNHCR spokesman in Kenya.
He said preparations for their return would entail, among other things, registration, working with other humanitarian agencies to set up basic amenities in their home areas, and an awareness campaign to let them know conditions in southern Sudan.
The agency will also assist them with shelter, sanitation, water, health, education and income-generating projects.
The Sudanese civil war started in 1983 when the SPLM/A took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country, which has left some 2 million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and disease.
The Sudanese government and the SPLM/A began peace talks in March 1994 in Kenya and signed key peace protocols May 26, 2004 in Kenyan town Naivasha, on power sharing, paving the way for a full ceasefire and implementation pact to end a war that has cut Africa ‘s biggest country in two for over two decades.