The world could face a humanitarian failure if up to half a million refugees return to southern Sudan in the event of a final peace deal between rebels and government forces before the end of the year, the United Nations warned on Monday.
“What we are concerned, though, is that some of the displaced [people] from the south have started to go back because of the preliminary [peace] agreements. A hundred thousand have gone back so far this year,” Dennis McNamara, the special UN adviser on displacement, told a news conference.
McNamara said Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), a multi-agency body working in the country, estimates that another 100Â 000 are likely to leave Khartoum for the south this year — even if a final peace settlement is not signed.
“If there is a peace settlement signed, it is estimated that up to 500Â 000 may flood back to the south of Sudan,” he said.
“We are not ready for that at all, we are not equipped, we are not on the ground, agencies are prepared [but] we don’t have the funds. Donor interest is on Darfur, [and agencies] have diverted resources to Darfur, ” McNamara said.
“Darfur, being such an extreme emergency, has distracted you all and many of us from the very important issue of [the] displaced population from the war in the south of Sudan.
“And as you know, that figure is three or four million, much bigger than the Darfur population, but not new,” he said.
McNamara said of the $153-million required for the return and reintegration of refugees required in 2004, the UN has only received $17-million — “peanuts”, he said dismissively.
About “$136-million is still needed for immediate needs in the south”, he said, regretting that humanitarian needs in southern Sudan are still not on the agenda of donors.
The southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the Sudanese government have already agreed on all the contentious issues in peace talks in Kenya, aimed at ending 21 years of devastating conflict.
The war in southern Sudan erupted in 1983 when black African rebels took up arms to fight Khartoum-based Islamic governments.
The war has claimed at least 1,5-million lives and displaced more than four million others, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Meanwhile, in the western region of Darfur another conflict has left hundreds of thousands in a precarious humanitarian situation, since it broke out in February 2003 when rebels from minority tribes took up arms to demand an equal share of national development, triggering a bloody crackdown by government troops and allied militia. — Sapa-AFP
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