UN agency seeks funds to repatriate Sudanese refugees

NAIROBI, Feb 9, 2005 (Xinhua) — The United Nations refugee agency is seeking 62 million US dollars this year to repatriate 500,000 refugees from southern Sudan currently living in neighboring countries.

Sudanese refugees arriving at Kyangwali settlement in Uganda after being displaced from their original camp in Achol Pii. (HCR).

In a statement issued in Nairobi on Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it has only received 6 million US dollars in donations out of 30 million dollars it requested for last year.

“So far this year, no contributions have been received for the program. If we are going to see lasting peace in southern Sudan, a lot of work needs to be done now to ensure that half a million refugees can finally go home and stay home,” the UNHCR said.

“Extreme lack of infrastructure and basic services in southern Sudan after decades of conflict means that major investment is needed to rehabilitate communities before such returns can begin,” the UNHCR added.

Hostilities between the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A officially ended on January 9 with the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement.

The “New Sudan” is based upon a power-sharing protocol in which Khartoum will form a government of national unity with a decentralized system of administration, allowing the SPLM to set up a semi-autonomous administration in the south.

“The UNHCR has opened three offices in southern Sudan – in Rumbek, Juba and Yei – but without adequate funds we cannot fully begin projects to rehabilitate areas of potential return,” the UN agency said.

The UNHCR said it was dispatching Deputy High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin this weekend for a week-long trip to southern Sudan, Uganda and Kenya where she will look at the UN agency’s initial efforts to lay the groundwork for the eventual refugee return to southern Sudan.

“The deputy high commissioner is undertaking the mission to get a first-hand look at UNHCR’s start-up operation and to draw international attention to this drastically underfunded program,” the statement said.

Chamberlin is scheduled to meet with authorities and UN partners in Khartoum, to visit the towns of Rumbek and Yei in southern Sudan and meet with internally displaced people in the region.

“She is then scheduled to visit Uganda to meet with refugees and hear from them about their views on repatriation. She will wrap up the trip with a visit to Sudanese refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma camp,” it said.

According to UNHCR, there are 223,000 refugees from southern Sudan are in Uganda, 60,000 in Kenya, 88,000 in Ethiopia, 69,000 in the DRC, an estimated 36,000 in the Central African Republic and 30,000 in Egypt.

The 21-year conflict, Africa’s longest running civil war, has displaced an estimated 4 million people within Sudan.