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Internally Displaced Persons – 2009

The U.N. Secretary General’s report suggested that the organized return of IDPs reached 8,687 as of July and over 90,000 when the peace process started in 2005. This figure does not include the number of spontaneous returns–over 120,000 returned spontaneously from northern Sudan to southern Sudan.¹ By October of that year, approximately 9,100 IDPs returned to southern Sudan under the joint plans initiated by the UNHCR. An estimated 1.9 million IDPs had returned spontaneously to their place of origin since 2005.² Violence was one of the factors that contributed to the delay in the return of IDPs. LRA violence displaced 54,000 people within Southern Sudan.³ Continued violence in Darfur and Abyei slowed the return of IDPs. Furthermore, the land rights issue contributed to a delay in the return of IDPs as land was cultivated by others in their absence.⁴

1. “Report of the Secretary General on the Sudan,” United Nations (S/2009/357), July 14, 2009.
2. “Report of the Secretary General on the Sudan,” United Nations (S/2009/545), October 21, 2009.
3. “Report of the Secretary General on the Sudan,” United Nations (S/2009/357), July 14, 2009.
4. “Sudan; Land Rights Hinder Darfur IDP Returns,” Africa News, November 25, 2009.