Returnees arrive in Bentiu

19 Mar 2012

Returnees arrive in Bentiu

16 March 2012 – Four barges carrying 382 South Sudanese and their personal belongings arrived in Bentiu at week's end upon completing a long journey from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

They were believed to be the first group of South Sudanese returnees threatened with expulsion by the Sudanese government to arrive in Unity State this year.

Upon arrival at Bentiu Bridge Port, the returnees were registered by representatives of Norwegian People's Aid, the World Food Programme, the International Organization for Migration and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The South Sudan Red Cross issued a pair of mosquito nets to each of the 128 households who made the trip, and the international non-governmental organization CARE International distributed soap, water purification tablets and buckets.

WFP and its partner organization Norwegian People's Aid also distributed a month of food rations to each of the returnees, which include cereals, beans and cooking oil.

Eye and respiratory infections, skin diseases and diarrhea were among the most commonly diagnosed diseases afflicting the returnees. A mobile team from the Unity State Ministry of Health also administered vaccinations against polio, measles and other illnesses with support from UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

Health Minister Dabora Kur Mayiel Bol welcomed the newly arrived southerners and pledged her government's support until they reached their final destination within Unity State. "This mobile team will be with you and provide treatment until you reach your home," she said.

Some of the returnees said they spent several months at the Upper Nile State town of Renk before making their way to Bentiu, and no waystation was available to receive them upon their arrival in the Unity State capital this week.

A building that formerly housed the state Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries in the Bentiu neighborhood of El Ingaz will provide temporary shelter, according to a government delegation led by Deputy Governor Samuel Lonch who visited the returnees at the river port.

"I have come here not just to welcome you but also to have a full picture of your condition," said the deputy governor.

It remained unclear how long the returnees would have to remain in Bentiu because money approved by the national legislative assembly for their re-settlement had yet to be distributed to state authorities, according to William Kuol Geng of the Unity State Reintegration and Rehabilitation Commission.

But it was plainly evident that some of the freshly arrived southerners wish to embark on the final leg of their homeward travels as soon as possible.

"We spent nine months in Renk depending on handouts," said John Mai Wang Lah, a 43-year-old returnees who lived in Khartoum for a dozen years. "We don't want to do the same here in our country and state."