First repatriation convoy to south Sudan from Ethiopia

Some 500 Sudanese refugees left the western Ethiopian camp of Bonga early this morning in the first repatriation convoy to south Sudan from Ethiopia. The convoy will travel more than 800 km and is expected to arrive in the Blue Nile region of south Sudan on Sunday.

Three more convoys are scheduled for April.

Some 79,000 south Sudanese refugees live in five camps in western Ethiopia - Bonga, Dimma, Fugnido, Sherkole and Yarenja. Most of the refugees arrived in Ethiopia in 1983 and in the 1990s as a result of the civil war in south Sudan.

UNHCR, Ethiopia and Sudan signed a tripartite agreement on Feb. 27 paving the way for the repatriation to south Sudan. There are some 358,000 south Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries, and 4 million more Sudanese displaced within their own country.