Two "official" UNHCR stories from today:
"Sudanese repatriation from Uganda gathers pace"...
(See also the related UNHCR "briefing notes".)
The UN refugee agency has stepped up the pace of Sudanese-refugee returns from Uganda, by opening a major new corridor to Eastern Equatoria state in South Sudan. Close to 50 per cent of the 160,000 Sudanese refugees living in a string of 11 camps in Uganda are from Eastern Equatoria.
A first convoy carrying 133 Sudanese refugees from Kyangwali and Kyriandongo camps in Uganda's Hoima district arrived last Wednesday in Nimule, a border town on the southern tip of Sudan's border with Uganda.
"I can't wait to be home. We hope [that] the peace [in Sudan] will last," said Jessica Achiro, a 45-year-old mother of seven told UNHCR staff in Gulu, northern Uganda, during a brief stopover for the return convoy on its two-day journey.
The introduction of a third corridor from Uganda to South Sudan was agreed on at a meeting in Kampala last May between UNHCR and the governments of Uganda and Sudan, amid improving security on both sides of the border. With the additional return route now open, UNHCR expects growing numbers of Sudanese to opt for return this year.
"People [in the convoy] were very happy to be back," said Chris Hamm, head of the UNHCR team in the town of Nimule, which is located in Magwi County. "Many of them are Acholis who have suffered LRA [Lord's Resistance Army] attacks in Uganda, but they were upbeat and seemed confident of their safety," he added, referring to a rebel group based in northern Uganda.
Until recently, UNHCR was not able to operate in Magwi, due to LRA activities in the area. Since the mid-1990s, the LRA has also been active in Eastern Equatoria. From there, they terrorized villagers in Uganda and Sudan, abducted residents, and regularly ambushed vehicles travelling from northern Uganda to Juba in South Sudan.
But security has improved following an LRA withdrawal from the area several months ago, boosting the confidence of refugees thinking of returning to Sudan.
"Since March [of] this year, no security incident attributed to LRA or other armed groups has been reported in Nimule or Magwi. Many of the displaced people have started to return to their villages," Hamm noted. "We feel that the situation is gradually conducive for repatriation."
With improved security, UNHCR and its implementing partner GTZ have established a transit centre in the bustling border town of Nimule [in order] to support the repatriation process through the new corridor.
"Reception in Nimule is just the first step. Few refugees are returning to Nimule. Many are continuing further north, to Magwi and Torit counties. We have opened a second reception centre in the town of Magwi," Hamm said, while noting that people were willingly returning to areas with few services and poor infrastructure.
UNHCR plans to work with non-governmental organizations to launch water, health, education, and income-generation projects in areas of high return.
"We are happy that we are finally able to return home. We hear that there is still no water and the roads are not ready, but still home is best," said 25-year-old John Oling. He left his wife and three children in Kyangwali camp in Uganda, but expects them to join him in Magwi, later in the year.
John Odek, who was travelling with his 17-year-old son, said [that] his relatives in Magwi had written to say [that] there was nothing to fear. "They told me [that] the security was good, and [that] there were no ethnic tensions here."
Many of the returnees have harrowing tales to tell. Night Achola, a young mother of 16 years who fled South Sudan aged three, was returning to live with her brother. Her father was killed fighting for rebel forces in South Sudan, while her mother was murdered by the LRA. But Achola is thinking big, hoping to improve her English, take a computer course, and become a secretary.
Some 157,000 Sudanese refugees have so far returned to South Sudan and Blue Nile state since the launch of voluntary repatriation to Sudan, in December 2005. Of this number, some 66,500 returned home with UNHCR assistance from five countries bordering southern Sudan – the Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
"'Lost Boy' among graduates ending Ethiopian exile to help rebuild South Sudan"...
South Sudan desperately needs people like Makuei Joseph Magai and Simon Pech. The two 27-year-old refugees, armed with valuable college degrees, left the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa last Monday for the town of Juba, in their devastated homeland.
They were among a group of five men holding degrees from Ethiopian institutions in a wide range of important development-linked subjects who were taking advantage of a voluntary repatriation programme for Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia launched by the UN refugee agency in March [of] last year.
Magai and Pech both gained their higher-education degrees through UNHCR's annual DAFI scholarship programme, more formally known as the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative. The German-government-funded programme grants deserving young refugees scholarships at universities, colleges, and polytechnics in their host countries.
The main aim of the DAFI programme is to contribute to human-resources development, as part of a broader UNHCR strategy of promoting self-reliance and durable solutions for refugees. Magai and Pech's expertise will allow them to contribute to the resurrection of South Sudan, where years of war destroyed infrastructure and left the economy in tatters, before a 2005 peace accord.
The 27-year-old Magai, one of the so-called "Lost Boys" who fled southern Sudan without their families, recently graduated from northern Ethiopia's Makalle University with a bachelor's degree in dryland agriculture and horticultural science.
"I would like to go home and use my knowledge for the betterment of my country and people," he said before heading home. "I believe [that] I have acquired this knowledge at a crucial time, when South Sudan needs more skilled and educated men and women [in order] to make it a prosperous country."
It has been quite an achievement for Magai, who was illiterate when he first fled to Ethiopia in 1988, at the start of a peripatetic journey that took him over the years back to Sudan, and on to Kenya, before returning to Ethiopia. But he worries about his parents and siblings, whom he has not seen in two decades.
Pech, who fled South Sudan in 1997, was also keen to help make a difference back home, with his economics degree from Bahir Dar University in north-western Ethiopia. "I am a qualified economist, and would like to be given the opportunity to help lead my native Unity State out [of] extreme economic deprivation," he said, flashing a broad smile.
As security improves, more people are opting to return to South Sudan, including professionals and college graduates from neighbouring countries and further afield. They include the Lost Boys – some 12,000 orphaned or unaccompanied young refugees, of whom 3,600 were resettled in the United States in recent years, after making epic journeys to reach sanctuary overseas.
UNHCR is fully supportive of the educated Sudanese who are returning home. "South Sudan today needs to build a strong local capacity that is the key for the continuing reconstruction process, and these educated returnees will no doubt play a catalytic role," said Cosmas Chanda, deputy representative of UNHCR's Regional Liaison Office for Africa. They could also encourage other members of the South Sudan diaspora to return.
In the seven years [that] it has been involved in promoting higher education in Ethiopia, the DAFI programme has funded the education of hundreds of refugees, most of them Sudanese. They have studied subjects ranging from engineering and economics to medical science and agriculture.
The UN refugee agency has helped more than 20,000 Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia to go back home. The repatriation operation was suspended in May, due to heavy rains, but it is expected to resume in November. In total, some 157,000 refugees have so far returned to southern Sudan, with or without UNHCR help.
By Kisut Gebre Egziabher
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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