Special Report: South Sudanese Returning Home to Uncertainty

After the historic peace agreement signed in January 2005, thousands of people who fled during the fighting began to return to their homes in South Sudan. However, one year on, food and water are still in short supply. And most communities still have no access to schools or health services.

IRC and Partners Say, One Year Later, Sudan Yet to Feel Benefits of Peace Agreement: Millions of Sudanese continue to live in fear of violence and have yet to feel the benefits of peace, according to the International Rescue Committee and its partners in the Sudan Advocacy Coalition.

IRC Prepares for Mass Returns to Devastated South Sudan: Torrential rains are creating large muddy pools outside the International Rescue Committee-run clinic in Warawar and people lining up for consultations are seeking shelter on the verandah. Some have been carried here on stretchers, shivering with fever.  But medical concerns are not the only problem faced by the returnees.

Rebecca Returns After 17 Years on the Run: For the past 17 years Rebecca Deng Diing has been sleeping under bushes or living in overcrowded camps. She has walked along desert paths and muddy forest trails more than she wants to remember, crisscrossing large sections of Sudan in search for security and a better life.

IRC Expands Health Services to Assist Returning South Sudanese: The IRC is setting up a mobile clinic in the remote village of Gokmachar in southern Sudan’s Aweil region to provide health services to an increasing number of returnees and the communities receiving them. The region was on the frontline of the civil war that raged for more than two decades between the northern-based government of Sudan and southern-based rebels.