IOM and its humanitarian partners are working to assist more than 6,000 South Sudanese who remain stranded at an open site near the town of Renk, the closest Southern Sudanese town to the international border with the Republic of Sudan. This week, the Organization assisted a small group of 198 returnees to reach their final destination in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile, by utilising small boats down the White Nile. IOM is hoping to scale up the operation in the forthcoming days as more river transportation is secured. The returnees, who had been living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and in settlements in and around Khartoum for many years, began their journey to the South, some in government provided transportation. However, unlike most returns to the South, their journey ended in the town of Renk, where they have been living on a site with limited access to food, water, sanitation and health facilities. The returnees who are mostly women, children and elderly are living in the open surrounded by bundles of their possessions, with more people arriving on a daily basis. An IOM team is currently in Renk to conduct medical screening, tracking and registration activities and is working with other humanitarian agencies to improve the living conditions at the temporary site. IOM is also working with the government of South Sudan to relocate the returnees to areas of greater security and improved access while efforts are being made to secure river transportation to Malakal. A contingency plan to assist the returnees to their final destinations is also being developed in coordination with OCHA and UNHCR. Since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in  2005, an estimated 2.5 million people who had been displaced during the war have returned to South Sudan, mostly through the government's repatriation programme. For more information, please contact: Samantha Donkin IOM Juba Tel: +249 922406728 E-mail:  "mailto:sdonkin@iom.int">sdonkin@iom.int