Southern Sudanese flock home before independence vote (Feature)

By Matt Richmond Nov 25, 2010, 2:06 GMT

Bentiu, Sudan - Thousands of southern Sudanese are quitting Sudan's capital Khartoum to return home months ahead of a referendum on independence widely expected to see the south split from the north.

They are returning in expectation of becoming part of what would be Africa's newest nation, should the January 9 referendum go ahead as planned.

The January vote is enshrined in a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the largely Muslim north and Christian and Animist South, which claimed around 2 million lives.

Between October 30 and November 16, around 17,000 southerners pitched up in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State, which lies on the border between the autonomous Southern Sudan and the north.

Every week a new group of buses arrives, loaded with people who fled the south, where the war was fought, a decade ago.

'It doesn't matter whether it's a bad country or a good country, I have come back to live where I was born,' said Chuor Fit, 39, as he waited for his World Food Programme ration card in an empty lot in Bentiu.

Local officials and international humanitarian organizations are scrambling to figure out how to care for the new arrivals.

The dry season is about to start in the south and when people are allocated land to farm, it will take until next June before the first harvest.

The government of Unity State has called on international organizations to supply the returnees with food, shelter and medicine for up to nine months.

'When they come here they have no cows, they have no goods, they have no farm, they don't have anything,' said William Kuol, who is in charge of the state's efforts to absorb the returnees.

Last week a delegation including high-ranking officials from each of the major UN-affiliated humanitarian organizations in Sudan visited Unity State to begin the response to the government's aid request.

The response has not kept up with the frantic pace of the returnee flow.

'What we told the government is they need to present us with one request for aid and a plan for the returnees,' said Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator for the UN in Southern Sudan.

Even before the returnees arrived, 50 per cent of the population in Unity State already suffered from at least a moderate level of food insecurity, according to the UN.

The state depends on its road to the north for most of its food, adding to its insecurity.

Many issues remain to be resolved before the referendum. Chief amongst them are a dispute over the border that cuts through Sudan's oil fields and the status of the oil-producing Abyei region, which is also scheduled to vote whether it goes with north or south in January.

Observers are concerned the outstanding issues, or a possible delay to the referendum and a consequent unilateral declaration of independence by the south, could lead to conflict.

'If the result of the referendum is war with the north, we will be depending on the UN for food,' said Kuol.

For now, many of the returnees are waiting on buses to take them to their villages. The roads to three of the state's ten counties are cut off because of rain, and the road to one county will not be open for at least 15 days, according to Kuol.

The people who plan to go to those three counties are waiting in temporary shelters, mainly schools, and are dependent on aid.

One of the temporary shelters is at Leich Secondary School - two single-story concrete buildings near the centre of Bentiu. The possessions of more than 200 people resident there are scattered on the sun-bleached ground between the buildings.

Esteban Kuoth has been staying there for three days and is waiting to go to Panyijar County, at the southernmost end of Unity State.

'The government is just telling us to stay here until further notice,' Kuoth said. 'I am sick and tired of staying here because I don't have any food and water and money.'

While a group of 15 returnees listened and nodded their heads, Kuoth said the water and food had run out earlier that day. The earlier group of returnees from Khartoum shared their food with Kuoth's group until it ran out.

'The [humanitarian] agencies, they came three days ago and we thought maybe they would have food with them,' Kuoth said. 'We are waiting.'

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