UNHCR to repatriate Sudanese refugees in Uganda

KAMPALA, Mar 1, 2005 (Xinhua) — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will repatriate about 6,000 Sudanese refugees in Uganda during the second half of 2005 after a sensitization campaign in the camps.

Home beckons for these Sudanese refugees in Uganda. (UNHCR).

Roberta Russo, external relations official of UNHCR Kampala Office, told Xinhua by telephone on Tuesday that there are some refugees who are willing to go back home but have expressed concern over the lack of infrastructure like schools, roads, health facilities in southern Sudan.

She also said that some refugees expressed concern over the occupation of their land by internally displaced persons in southern Sudan. The refugees noted that this is likely to cause discontent when they go back home.

Russo noted that the UN agency is going to carry out sensitization campaigns in the refugee camps and organize visits for some refugees to southern Sudan so that they can tell their colleagues about the situation there.

Uganda hosts about 200,000 Sudanese refugees.

Local reports said there are about 40,000 Sudanese refugees in Uganda’s central district of Kayunga, who have vowed not to go back home despite the recently signed peace pact between the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army and the Khartoum government.

According to these refugees, they can not go back home because they have lived in Uganda for the last 30 years and can not locate their land in southern Sudan.