Resource Details [ back ] RSS Feeds Sudan Return and Reintegration Operations Annual Report 2009

In 2009 approximately 445,561 IDPs and refugees returned to southern Sudan and the Three Areas, a number similar to 2008 levels. Of this total, around 85 percent returned spontaneously, 11 percent returned in joint organized movements and 4 percent returned with state-organized returns. The statistic also showed a significant decrease in joint UN-IOM/GNU/GoSS-organized returns of IDPs, from over 28,000 in 2008 to about 11,000 in 2009, or almost sixty percent. This resulted largely from a change in UN policy to shift emphasis away from organized north-south IDP movements toward an accentuation of the need to focus on sustainable reintegration. The organized returned of refugees also decreased by 50 percent, from over 62,000 in 2008 to 32,000 this year. Similarly, the state-organized returns decreased dramatically by 70 percent, from 39,887 in 2008 to 11,884 this year. The statistics also revealed that, despite the lack of joint organized north-south returns and significant decrease in other organized movements, people were still returning to southern Sudan and the Three Areas. As anticipated, this year spontaneous returns even increased slightly from over 325,000 returnees last year to over 390,000 in 2009.Read more