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SUDAN / SOUTHERN RETURNEES
STORY: SUDAN / SOUTHERN RETURNEES
TRT: 1:51
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGAUGES: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 15-16 JANUARY 2011, TORIT, SUDAN
1. Various shots, Mary and children preparing to board the bus
2. Various shots, Mary Lumori and family loading their belongings onto a truck
3. Med shot, Mary and child boarding the bus
4. Wide shot, UNHCR convoy leaving Juba port for Torit
5. Various shots, Mary and child in the bus
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mary Lumori, Returnee, South Sudan:
“I am happy to be in Torit, since it is my place. I am happy to be back in my town. Thank God, I am here with my children and my things.”
7. Various shots, Mary gets non food items from UNHCR
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Arsenie Coseac, Staff, United Nations Refugee Agency:
“We have to rebuild everything, health facilities, schools, homes everything has to be started again, so it takes a long time for them to re-integrate into the community and this is where the government and the UN agencies and NGOs come in.”
9. Various shots, Mary gets out of the vehicle with her belongings
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mary Lumori, Returnee, South Sudan:
“I never believed that I could return to this place. The trip took me more than 40 days and now I am back. I thank God for opening the way and guiding me all the way.”
11. Med shot, local people loading truck with their belonging
12. Wide shot, passengers alighting from a barge docked at Juba port
Mary Lumori lived in Omdurman, northern Sudan for over 20years. Her husband had a job, and four of her children were born there. But it was never quite home. They are from South Sudan and now they have come back. Southerners recently voted in a referendum to stay or leave Sudan.
Many, including Mary are worried that a referendum result to separate would affect their status and that was the push she needed to come back to the south. The journey south took a month. The first leg was by bus and the second by Nile River barge to reach Juba, the capital of the South. They weren’t alone. Already more than 180,000 southern Sudanese have returned.
In Juba, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) organises a convoy to take these 500 returnees back to their village.
Mary’s home state of eastern Equatoria was at the centre of the years’ long war between the Sudan government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Millions died and as many were displaced. For Mary this is a memorable day.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mary Lumori, Returnee, South Sudan:
”Since it is my place. I am happy to be back in my town. Thank God, I am here with my children and my belongings. Thank god I made from Juba to my place.”
Much of the area remains devastated and undeveloped. Many of returnees will continue to depend on assistance to get back on their feet and rebuild their lives.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Arsenie Coseac, Staff, United Nations Refugee Agency:
“We have to rebuild everything, health facilities, schools, homes everything has to be started again, so it takes a long time for them to re-integrate into the community and this is where the government and the UN agencies and NGOs come in.”
Mary is not daunted by the problems ahead.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mary Lumori, Returnee, South Sudan:
“I never believed that I could return to this place. The trip took me more than 40 days and now I am back. I thank God for opening the way and guiding me all the way. “
There are an estimated 1.5 million southern Sudanese in the North. UNHCR officials expect that the steady stream of returnees will probably increase, particularly if the vote for separation is yes.
Preliminary results are expected later this month.
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