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Internally Displaced Persons – 2005

The 2005 CPA provides that the parties were committed to humanitarian assistance to war-affected persons including IDPs and their rights to return. The parties were also committed to assisting returnees with starting normal, stable and safe lives in their respective communities. At the time of the signing of CPA in 2005, the United Nations Missions in Sudan estimated there were over four million conflict-caused internally displaced persons in Sudan.¹ The International Displacement Monitoring Center estimated 5,355,000 IDPs in Sudan in 2005.²

By the end of the year, there had been over 500,000 spontaneous returns of IDPs and refugees in Sudan.³ The IDMC statistics suggest IDPs were not resettled back to their communities as the estimated IDPs did not change for 2006. The main concern remained the security situation of the communities to which the IDPs were returning. In this regard, the UNHCR would prepare communities to receive IDPs displaced within Sudan as well as refugees returning from neighboring countries. The UNHCR had built or rebuilt schools, hospitals, vocational training centers and water points not only for IDPs but to help entire communities.⁴

1. “Sudan IDP & Refugee Returns,” Reintegration Operations Statistical Overview, accessed October 26, 2011, http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpDocuments)/FEED5CE5022A706CC125753E003F3046/$file/Returns_RRR-Jan09.pdf.
2. “Internal displacement caused by conflict and violence,” IDMC, 2011, http://www.internal-displacement.org/IDMC_IDP-figures_2001-2010.pdf, accessed January 24, 2012.
3. “Report of the Secretary General on the Sudan,” United Nations (S/2005/821), December 21, 2005.
4. “Sudan; First UN-Organized Repatriation of Southern Sudan’s Refugees Gets Under Way,” Africa News, December 19, 2005.