Sudan to repatriate 43,500 southerners from Khartoum, Kosti

November 2, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) is making preparations to repatriate 40,000 South Sudanese citizens from Khartoum as well as 3,500 from the White Nile state’s city of Kosti on Sunday.

The farewell ceremony at the end of the repatriation operations would be attended by Sudan’s interior minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, the governor of the White Nile state Youssef al-Shanbali, South Sudan’s ambassador to Khartoum Mayan Dut Waal and South Sudan’s commissioner of Relief and Reconstruction Peter Lam Buth.

HAC’s voluntary return officer al-Sir al-Omda, told the pro-government Sudan Media Center (SMC) website on Saturday that the local African church led by Rev. John Kun Guj had sponsored the repatriation program and transferred 3,000 Southerners living in Khartoum six months ago.

He disclosed efforts by the voluntary return commission to repatriate 40,000 South Sudanese living in Khartoum’s public squares, pointing that positive development in relations between the two countries and the opening of border crossings would facilitate the return operations.

Al-Omda further said that the donor countries and the church have expressed willingness to resolve issues of the South Sudanese stranded in Sudan.

(ST)