Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Sudan + 4 more

Sudan: World refugee day

To mark World Refugee Day this week, June 20, we look at a Sudanese family who made it back home after seven long years of exile.

Sudan's civil war between the North and the South lasted for 22 years from 1983 to 2005. Up to 4 million people were displaced from their homes in South Sudan, fleeing to neighboring countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic, and north to Darfur and Khartoum.

A peace agreement was signed in 2005 bringing peace to the South, but intense fighting in the disputed North-South border region of Abyei has recently led to further displacement of 50,000 people from the area.

The Masmino family return

But the situation in Sudan is not all negative. Some 275,000 Sudanese refugees have returned to South Sudan since 2006 from various surrounding countries. Recently in western Ethiopia, the UNHCR officially closed two of the four camps hosting refugees from South Sudan following the successful repatriation of some 23,000 refugees.

Lucia Masmino and her family represent one such success story. Having fled South Sudan in 2000, the family spent seven years as refugees in a camp in the Central African Republic. Lucia's two grandchildren, Joys and Evalina, were born in the camp.

In April 2007, the family returned to South Sudan, where the peace agreement signed in 2005 brought an end to 23 years of a brutal civil war. Since then the family have been attempting to rebuild their lives. Working through Sudanese NGO HARD, Trócaire supported Lucia's family by providing mosquito nets, blankets, cooking pots, and sleeping mats, as well as seeds and tools, so that they could resume their lives in Sudan with dignity. Although the family still face difficulties, they are relieved and happy to be back in their own country after 7 long years in exile.

On World Refugee Day, we remember all those that remain displaced from their homes, whether inside or outside of Sudan. And we hope for a swift end to the on-going conflicts in Darfur and Abyei so that the Sudanese refugees and IDPs can return to their homes and rebuild their lives in peace and dignity.

Who's a refugee?

According to international law, a refugee is defined as someone who is outside their country of nationality because of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. It is also widely recognised that the term refugee includes those forced to leave their country due to a generalised increase in violence.

Last year UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's message on World Refugee Day 2007 highlighted that there are also people living in refugee-like conditions within their own countries who have the same need for protection and assistance. Known as internally displaced people or IDPs, their number is increasing and their plight should also be remembered on World Refugee Day.

Sudan has been hugely affected by displacement for many years. Since 2003, over 200,000 Sudanese people, many of them women and children, have crossed into Chad, fleeing the ongoing violence in the western Sudanese province of Darfur. A further 1.25 million are internally displaced within Darfur. Trócaire are working with Caritas Internationalis and Action by Churches Together (ACT) in Darfur to provide emergency assistance to some 500,000 people displaced by the conflict.