Over 26,000 refugees return home in southern Sudan since this year

The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) announced on Thursday that over 26,000 displaced people had been assisted to return their homes in southern Sudan since road convoys started operation in February this year.

UNMIS stressed in a statement that the cooperation between the UN, the Sudanese federal government and the government of southern Sudan to implement the joint plan for the return of the Internally Displace Persons (IDPs) would continue.

Five major convoy routes are currently being used to get the IDPs back to their home communities, UNMIS said.

The UN and its two partners are relying on the sustained financial commitments of the international community in order to ensure timely implementation of the joint plan to bring the IDPs home and to help them restart their lives and livelihood.

Around 100,000 IDPs households have registered in Khartoum for return before December 2007.

The Sudanese government and the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Jan. 9, 2005, paying the way for the return of hundreds of thousands IDPs to their homes in southern Sudan.