Uganda: 50,000 Sudanese Refugees Return Home (go back »)

Soap Sheets A total of 50,000 Sudanese refugees have left Uganda since the beginning of the voluntary repatriation exercise last year.The latest batch of 240 Sudanese left Palorinya refugee settlement in Moyo district on Friday. According to a statement from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (UNHCR), the refugees who were heading for the Eastern Equatorial region in Sudan, were given blankets, sleeping mats, plastic sheets, mosquito nets, water buckets, kitchen sets, jerrycans, soap, seeds and tools."More Sudanese are waiting for our support to return home," said Stefano Severe, the UNHCR representative.According to UNHCR, about 24,000 refugees have been repatriated to Sudan this year and the number is expected to increase since a plan to scale up the exercise began this month.The scheme is expected to almost triple the number of refugees returning home from an average of 1,200 to over 3,000 weekly.A recent re-verification exercise by UNHCR revealed that 59,000 Sudanese refugees were no longer living in the refugee Soap Sheets in Moyo, Arua, Yumbe, and Adjumani districts. The majority are believed to have returned to Sudan."Almost 110,000 Sudanese refugees have returned from Uganda to Sudan in total," said Roberto Russo, the external relations officer.Jennifer Modong, a 42-year-old widow, said: "I am happy to be returning home. I look forward to settling down and building a house when I reach home,"Uganda hosts 174,958 refugees, including 97,600 Sudanese, 39,466 from DR Congo, 18,068 from Rwanda and about 12,000 from Kenya.Overall, over 250,000 refugees have returned to Sudan from various countries.