Sudan's Returnees Continue to Face Poor Conditions at Home
Posted on Tuesday, 18-08-2009
Sudan - An overwhelming majority of the 1.9 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees who have returned to Southern Kordofan and to Southern Sudan since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005 continue to face insurmountable challenges accessing basic services and facilities, says IOM's return tracking and the four village assessment reports published today.
The data for tracking comprehensive report was compiled over the past three years by 1,400 trained staff from the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) and the Voluntary Return and Reintegration Committee (VRRC).
The reports show that an estimated 200,000 returnees underwent secondary displacement because they could not access vital basic facilities and services such as safe drinking water, healthcare and education.
<b>According to the report, a third of all communities in Southern Kordofan and Southern Sudan continue to use rivers and unprotected wells as their main source of water. In Unity State and in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, 77 per cent and 68 per cent of the villages do not have access to safe drinking water because of broken hand pumps. </b>
Access to adequate healthcare facilities and qualified personnel remains extremely scarce with more than 90 per cent of villages in Warrap, Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Southern Kordofan and Unity remain have no health facilities whatsoever. Basic medical infrastructures were found in only 9 per cent of all villages and only 5 per cent had qualified medical doctors.
The report also finds that close to 80 per cent of the villages assessed in Warrap, Unity and Northern Bahr El Ghazal do not have direct access to basic primary schools and that the few existing schools were simple outdoors facilities.
"IOM's return tracking and village assessments provide important life-saving information about returnees and their host communities," says IOM's Mario Tavolaj. "Quantifying return trends and qualifying the needs of returnees will help the humanitarian community address some of the most urgent needs to ensure all returns are sustainable."
The Returns Tracking Programme is funded by the United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund (UNCHF), the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA/USAID), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Norway.
<b>The Village Assessments Programme has received financial support from ECHO, OFDA/USAID, AusAID International Refugee Fund, the Government of Japan, UNCHF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). </b>
For more information, please contact:
Alghribawy Mayssa
IOM Khartoum
Tel: +249 183 570 801 to 804
E-mail:
[email protected] or
Ingeborg Zorn
IOM Juba
Tel: +249 910 623 519
E-mail:
[email protected] 
