Over 27,000 refugees return to South Sudan Rubkona

October 25, 2019 (JUBA) – Over 27 thousands of South Sudanese refugees have returned to their home area in Rubkona of Northern Liech state from Khartoum said, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a recent report.

On 24 October, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) issued a report about movement of returnees to Bentiu and Rubkona from Khartoum during the period from April to September 2019.

According to the report, DTM said 13820 South Sudanese arrived from Khartoum at Rubkona bus station. More 13282 individuals arrived in the period from June to 5 September, bringing the total number of arrivals from Sudan to 27,102 since 15 April 201

The IOM noted that not all of the returnees go to their home villages or areas adding that many of them heading to Bentiu Protection of Civilian (PoC) site.

Furthermore, a large proportion reported leaving Sudan due to various effects of the tensions there affecting livelihoods and food security, notably in East Darfur.

The report, however, says that 72.6% of the returnees go directly to their habitual residence. Generally, they say they had been forced to leave their areas and now after peace, they return to their home area.

However, some 11% of the said their return was triggered by the tensions in Sudan before the collapse of al-Bashir and after April 2019.

(ST)