As part of the Joint Organized Return Plan coordinated and implemented by the Government of National Unity (GoNU), the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and IOM, the first overland IOM convoy assisting South Sudanese to return home since the end of this year's rainy season will depart early morning on 1 December from Omdurman El Salam Departure Centre on the outskirts of Khartoum. Buses and trucks will carry returnees and their belongings back home to Renk County in Upper Nile State. All adults and children travelling on the convoy have been medically screened prior to departure and have received routine vaccinations against Yellow Fever, Diphtheria/Polio/Tetanus (DPT/OPV) and Tuberculosis (BCG) by IOM medical staff with an IOM doctor and a nurse/midwife also accompanying the convoy. The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided the returnees with a 15-day transit food ration to cover their travel needs. A further three-month WFP food ration will be distributed at final destinations where returnees will be met by government and UNMIS Return Recovery and Reintegration Unit reception committees. At the Departure Centre, the returnees have also received a package of Non Food Items (NFIs) consisting of mosquito nets, blankets, plastic sheeting, soap, jerry cans, and sleeping mats from the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC). Wrapping up this year's return operations, subsequent IOM land convoys will also travel to Dilling and Kadugli counties in Southern Kordofan as well as to Koch and Guit counties in Unity State during December. A group of South Sudanese displaced will also be taken by barge from Kosti to Malakal Town. A total of 3,500 persons are expected to be assisted home by 31 December. IOM and its partners are also preparing the return home of internally displaced people within South Sudan. A comprehensive internally displaced return registration exercise funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is being conducted in Nimule (Eastern Equatoria), and will soon begin in Labone (Eastern Equatoria) and Kajo Keji (Central Equatoria). Emergency funding of US$2 million from the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) and additional funding by USAID has enabled IOM to complete this year's operations to return tens of thousands of internally displaced South Sudanese. However, US$4 million is still urgently required for priority return operations scheduled for early 2008 and to establish a logistics infrastructure which entails the building or re-establishment and refurbishment of an extensive network of departure centres and way stations that were either dismantled or damaged during the long rainy season. Since 2006, IOM has assisted nearly 60,500 South Sudanese internally displaced people to return to Southern Sudan and Southern Kordofan by land, barge and air as part of the Joint Organized Return Plan. For further information, please contact: Simona Opitz IOM Khartoum Tel: + 249 (0)912330700 E-mail: "mailto:sopitz@iom.int">sopitz@iom.int