GoSS To Repatriate 6,000 Southerners From Kosti

2nd March 2011 – (Khartoum) –At least six thousand Southern Sudanese returnees at Kosti in White Nile State are ready to be repatriated by GoSS to their homes of origin.

The coordinator of the organized return program in GoSS, Reverend William Chan spoke to Sudan Radio Service by phone from Kosti on Tuesday.

[Rev. William Chan]: “We have completed our arrangements with the I-O-M and they have agreed with a contractor and accepted to transport about six thousand Southern Sudanese who are present in Kosti to Upper Nile and Greater Equatoria. There are twelve groups, some will carry household goods and some will carry people, and the person in charge of the groups has assured us that he will carry about six thousand people to the areas I have mentioned. So loading will take four days because there are many things to carry and this is one of the difficulties we are facing because our people want to move with every household kit and just leave the house standing.”

Reverend William Chan said the living conditions in the camps are deplorable but GoSS and I-O-M are providing the returnees with their basic needs.

[Rev. William Chan]: “Of course in the camps part of the problems they are facing is that the environment they are living in is not a good environment and there are children who get sick and now we just lost a child here in the camp according to the report I received. However, the G-o-S-S Ministry of Health has dispatched a medical team here. There are medical assistants and a medical doctor has come also and I-O-M has also brought a medical doctor and other N-G-O-s also present in Kosti.”

Reverend Chan said that the World Food Program will continue to provide food rations to the returnees for the next three months until they have been resettled.