KENYA: SUDANESE REFUGEES WAIT TO RETURN HOME AS GOVERNMENT AND REBELS AGREE EXTENTION TO CURRENT TRUCE.
Record ID:
275148
KENYA: SUDANESE REFUGEES WAIT TO RETURN HOME AS GOVERNMENT AND REBELS AGREE EXTENTION TO CURRENT TRUCE.
- Title: KENYA: SUDANESE REFUGEES WAIT TO RETURN HOME AS GOVERNMENT AND REBELS AGREE EXTENTION TO CURRENT TRUCE.
- Date: 24th February 2004
- Summary: (W4) KAKUMA, KENYA (FEBRUARY 25, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GV/CU: ENTRANCE TO KAKUMA REFUGEE CAMP; MEN PULLING A CART PILED WITH SACKS OF DONATED FOOD; SIGN AT ENTRANCE TO KAKUMA REFUGEE CAMP (3 SHOTS) 0.20 2. TV/GV: VARIOUS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN PLAYING INSIDE CAMP (2 SHOTS) 0.28 3. MV/CU: REFUGEE CHILDREN IN SCHOOL ROOM; TEXTBOOK COVERED WITH A PAS
- Embargoed: 10th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KAKUMA, NAIVASHA, AND NAIROBI, KENYA
- Country: Kenya
- Reuters ID: LVA95S11JACM1J3AI8HSYP5F2M
- Story Text: Sudan's government and main rebel group have agreed
a month-long truce extension.
Sudan's government and main rebel group have signed
a month-long truce extension while trying to tackle two
issues blocking a final peace deal. But thousands of
Sudanese refugees living rough in northern Kenya are
growing impatient as they wait to return home.
Sprawled out over an 11-kilometer stretch in Kenya's
parched Rift Valley, is the Kakuma refugee camp. The
desert-like conditions of the region are hardly welcoming,
but Kakuma is home to over 90,000 people of Sudanese,
Somali, Ugandan, Eritrean, Burundian, and Rwandan origin.
Most of them either had to walk, run, or hitch a ride on
any available vehicle to escape being killed or slowly
starving to death in their home countries.
Like most of his countrymen, 23-year-old Pierre Mading
Mengistu longs to return home to southern Sudan. He was a
former child soldier in the rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Army (SPLA) which has waged war since 1983 against the
Islamic government for greater autonomy in the south. The
conflict has killed some two million people and forced
millions more to flee, sixty thousand of them have wound up
in Kakuma.
Mengistu was one of the first to arrive. He now spends
his days teaching English and Kiswahili to hundreds of
Sudanese aged between eight and 23 who cram into one of the
camp's primary schools. Although he loves to teach, Pierre
would rather be doing so in Sudan's lush Upper Nile region
- which he fled from almost a decade ago.
"I really support the idea of going back to Sudan.
There are so many children growing up here who have no idea
where they are from and consequently, who they are. My
dream is that one day our children can learn about their
history and culture in their own land," says Mengistu.
Limited to the confines of the camp in Kenya's remote,
barren north, most Sudanese have no inkling that in the
lower, greener part of the valley the Khartoum government
and SPLA are engaged in talks which observers hope could
deliver peace to oil-exporting Sudan sometime this year.
But critics warn that it is impossible to find easy and
quick solutions to Africa's longest running conflict.
Some of Kakuma's Sudanese gave up hope of returning to
Sudan a long time ago and dream instead of being relocated
to countries like the U.S., Canada, or Australia
especially now that tensions with the indigenous Turkana
people that live around the camp are at an all-time high.
But Mengistu says, "In Africa, we say, 'home is home'.
It means that regardless of how bad things are, it's better
to be where you belong. Even in this camp, we live in fear
of nightly raids by the local Turkana people. It's awful
that the things we fled from in Sudan seem to have followed
us here."
Aid agencies warn that 20 years of war have completely
ravaged southern Sudan. There are no roads to speak of, no
electricity, few hospitals or schools. Water and sanitation
is poor and many areas are riddled with landmines. It
provides a stark contrast to the camps, which are bleak but
at least offer basic primary school education, medical care
and regular handouts of food.
However, this does not deter some of Mengistu's
compatriots who say they are sick of perpetually eating
maize or beans, and cowering from the dizzying sun, harsh
sandstorms, and resentful Turkana of Kakuma.
"I'm not afraid to go back because I have acquired many
skills that I can put to use back home. I can be a
mechanic, a driver, or a tailor. It depends on the what I
find there," says Sudanse refugee Wilson Ujulu.
"It's not a matter of how long it takes to reach a
peace deal, the important thing is that after so many years
of war, we are finally close to peace, and that is what I'm
hoping for no matter how long it takes," adds Peter Achiek,
a shop keeper in Kakuma's Sudanese market.
Although talks between First Vice President Ali Osman
Taha and rebel leader John Garang are dragging on with two
key issues still to be resolved, aid agencies are already
preparing to deal with the onslaught of Sudanese who they
expect will volunteer for repatriation once a deal is
sealed. An operation to update a database of all the
Sudanese refugees is due to be completed by the end of
March.
"We have about sixty thousand Sudanese refugees in the
camp, UNHCR has a plan to assist about thirty thousand to
return home towards the close of this year, what we are
doing at the moment is to update the records on this
people," says Cosmas Chanda, in charge of the UNHCR in
Kakuma.
However, the daily sight of Sudanese people still
trickling in to seek refuge at Kakuma may dampen any waves
of euphoria about imminent peace and consequent
repatriation.
It's a glaring sign of just how much more work needs to
be done in Naivasha. The United States, which lists Sudan
as a "state sponsor of terrorism", has played a major role
in pushing the parties to end 20 years of civil war.
Analysts caution that although the progress made is
encouraging, steady pressure from the international
community will be the deciding factor in passing the next
hurdles of power sharing, and three disputed frontline
areas. These talks do not cover a separate rebellion in
Western Sudan that shows little signs of abating.
"I think the Naivasha accord is a good starting point.
At least they agreed in principle that they should
basically come together and form more or less a government
of national unity, and I think that's good idea, let them
try that, maybe they will be suprised at how well they work
together, and after that other issues can be dealt with,
but there has to be a starting point," says regional
political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi.
Meanwhile back in Kakuma, Mengistu's lessons have ended
for the day. The monotony of camp life is broken up by the
odd volleyball game under the setting sun as the relentless
heat in Kakuma finally lets up. For a few minutes, the
players and spectators will forget their fear and
homesickness, and their minds, for a short time, will
experience a form of peace.
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