By Staff Writer
About 63 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have made up their mind to put up and live at the poor sanitary conditions along the smelly shores of River Nile as home. They have endured the blistering sunshine and cold nights trying to come to terms with realities of being a displaced person in your own country.Their horrible experiences on River Nile is labelled with scaring tales that are evidently narrated with untold grieve, fear and despair on their faces as a result of their return from Northern Sudan.
The River Nile, which transverses Juba, the capital of South Sudan, the flows towards Northern Sudan and Egypt. It is along this river that Southerners have experienced difficult journey s when they travel to and fro Juba and Khartoum.
Mrs. Teresa Gabriel is amongst the returns, who packed up their belongings in Khartoum and embarked on a two-week voyage to come back home, thanks to the availability of barges plying River Nile.
Mrs. Teresa Gabriel is a mother of three: John Mbiko 6 years, Grace Hipai 5 years, and Jackson Ume 3 month, who were in her company her to return home.
Mrs. Teresa Gabriel arrived with a group of 20 other families and proceeded to Western Equatoria state. As the 63 IDPs, who included men, women, young boys, girls and children returned home, from Western Equatoria state, spoke vividly of their experiences that characterised their return home journey on River Nile.
The IDPs who were forced into displacement in Khartoum by the two- decade war returned home as they abandoning their jobs and houses in the north.
‘We left our Jobs and our homes and removed our children from schools. We appeal to the government of southern Sudan to give us food and find schools for our children”, Mrs Gabriel Teresa said on behalf of the group. She revealed that northerners did not want to buy our houses and after quitting job we were denied post service benefit.
Mrs Teresa Gabriel said that she hoped the government of southern Sudan would extend assistance to the group who had voluntarily decided to return home. But Mrs Gabriel’s decision was not easy as she had to opt for hard choices after confirming that no aide was coming their way.
Other returns within Mrs. Teresa Gabriel’s group and several other groups had camped at the River Nile port in Juba. They had to face hard realities, as they had to sleep in the cold without mosquito nets. They were only hoping to get some assistance from the government.
Mrs. Teresa Gabriel comes from Ezo County in Western Equatoria .She said that many displaced people in the north would want to come home but could not do so because they cannot afford transport back to the south.
As she broke down in tears, Mrs Gabriel 40 narrated her devastating ordeal to Hon. Anthony Lino Makana Minister of Transport in the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) who paid a visit to the returns’ in camp at shores of River Nile.
As the Minister listened sympathetically, Mrs. Teresa Gabriel said, “we suffered a lot, working hard to develop north but the north can’t appreciate our efforts.”
Like most Southern Sudanese, Mrs. Teresa Gabriel dismissed the general notion amongst some people that the returns were merely coming to vote for unity because we lived in the North.
“Don’t be deceived that returnees want unity as alleged .We are not kids who forget atrocities committed against us in the past. We will not accept unity that kills us”, she said. Said Mrs. Teresa Gabriel, “We better vote for separation and die for the truth rather than vote for unity which has no future for us”.
Catharina Oresto Abiri too is a native of Tombura county, western Equatorial State. She said that majority of southerners hoped to return home but cannot do so because of high transport charges. Mrs. Abiri called upon the government of southern Sudan to live up to its pledges of supporting the repatriation of IDPs to southern Sudan.
Abiri confessed that she had to part with a staggering SDGS 1,500 to carter for her transport on the Nile barge from Khartoum to Juba. This she noted was too expensive for many displaced persons to afford. “GOSS has not provided any means of transport to our destination but only promised to do so and we wonder when” she posed.
Abiri described the journey from Khartoum to the South as gruelling and tiresome experience to spent 19 days of travelling from Khartoum to Juba on the River Nile only to spend another 12 days in the cold without food, soap, and single coin to survive. The returns, who appealed to GoSS and local humanitarian organisations to come to their rescue, cautioned that their poor living conditions could trigger outbreak of diseases in the camp.
Arkangelo Bidi, one of the returns is elated to return to Southern Sudan but would only be fully contented when he steps on his village soil in Yambio. He is a father of twelve and served as a soldier with SAF based in Kassala. He sought refuge in Khartoum in 1969. Arkangelo Bidi said he could not afford the cost of relocating his family to Yambio and appealed for assistance that could enable him reach his home of origin.
Raymond Mandera of Tombura County, who fled home for Khartoum in 1992 during the war and got camped in Jebel Aulia, lost his job in Khartoum. He recalled that when hardship struck, he resorted to construction work while his wife opted to brew waregi for commercial purposes.
He said life was not easy in terms of freedom to do whatever one wanted. Raymond Mandera explained, “my wife was imprisoned for the whole of 1997. She was arrested because of brewing alcohol. She was jailed for one year and charged two thousand Sudanese Pounds.”
Mandera said they were given seven hundred pounds and food stuff by an unnamed humanitarian agency when they set out from Kosti to Juba. He said the money was inadequate to facilitate him and his family to go to Tambura. “We are seeking assistance that can take us to Tombura because what was given to us is exhausted and the situation is changing by the hour”, Mandera complained.
The Minister of Roads and Transport, who is also Member of Parliament from Western Equatoria State, Hon. Anthony Lino Makana deplored the terrible conditions endured by the returns. Hon. Lino Anthony Makana expressed his concern over the plight of the returns from Khartoum Back home.
“I share your pain, concerns and I understand the brunt you bore on your way back home,” said the Minister. He added, “as MP from the Western Equatoria, I have hired two trucks to transport you and all your personal belongings up to your respective destinations.”
Majority of IDPs are keen on returning home to take part in the referendum for self-determination on January 9, 2011. The 22-year civil war directly or indirectly claimed lives of two million people and displaced 4 million Southern Sudanese.
The referendum for self-determination for Southern Sudanese is corner stone of January 9, 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party.
