IOM has begun the registration of internally displaced (IDP)
Sudanese living in Khartoum who want to return home nearly two
years after a peace agreement that ended a 21 year-old civil war in
the south.
The registrations, until February 2007, will allow for the first
rounds of organized returns to communities in South Sudan, most
likely next year. About 100,000 households with an average size of
six people per family are expected to register.
As well as registering those IDPs in Khartoum state who want to
return home, IOM is also providing information and material
assistance to the displaced, including facilitating transportation
to destinations in the south.
The Government of National Unity (GNU), the Government of South
Sudan (GoSS) and the United Nations (UN), have agreed that 150,000
people displaced in the North will be assisted through organized
returns, with IOM facilitating the transportation of 35,000 people.
Another estimated 48,000 South Sudanese IDPs, currently in South
Darfur and the Southern and Central States, will be assisted home
by IOM between now and July 2007.
Registration of IDPs, which began last Sunday, is being carried
out in 35 fixed and five mobile registration points in the main IDP
areas throughout the State of Khartoum and will help identify not
only the most vulnerable groups in need of special assistance, but
will also help all those involved in the return and reintegration
of IDPs in their planning. 
Prior to registration, IOM carried out an annual IDP intentions
survey in 54 selected localities in Khartoum and in the Central and
Northern states of El Gezira, Gedarif, Kassala, Nile, Northern, Red
Sea, Sennar and White Nile. The survey, funded by the UN’s
Common Humanitarian Fund, revealed that out of a sample of nearly
6,500 households, more than 62 per cent said they intended to
return home even though after an average of 17 years of
displacement, they are worried about conditions upon return and
about how they will return home safely.
An estimated four million Sudanese are still displaced within
their country as a result of the conflict in the south.
For further information, please contact
Birgit Hussfeld
IOM Khartoum
E-mail:
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