VZCZCXRO4540
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0701/01 0790737
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 200737Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1958
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KHARTOUM 000701 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/SPG, PRM, AND ALSO PASS USAID/W 
USAID FOR DCHA SUDAN TEAM, AF/EA, DCHA 
NAIROBI FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA, USAID/REDSO, AND FAS 
USMISSION UN ROME 
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH 
NAIROBI FOR SFO 
NSC FOR JMELINE, TSHORTLEY 
USUN FOR TMALY 
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID PREF PGOV PHUM SOCI KAWC SU
SUBJECT:  IDPs in Central and Eastern Equatoria:  USAID 
Plans for Assisted Returns 
 
 
------------------- 
Summary and Comment 
------------------- 
 
¶1.  In February, two officials from the USAID Sudan Field 
Office (USAID/SFO) in Nairobi traveled to Juba, Kajo- 
Keji, Nimule, and Lobone in Central and Eastern Equatoria 
States of Southern Sudan.  The USAID team met with 
government officials and internally displaced persons 
(IDPs) to discuss plans to assist returnees.  The 
governor and other officials of Jonglei State (the state 
of origin for many IDPs) and representatives from three 
USAID partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) 
accompanied the USAID team.  The team met with Government 
of Southern Sudan (GoSS) and U.N. officials in Juba 
before traveling to Mangalatore and Bamurye IDP camps in 
Kajo-Keji County, and to Nimule town and Lobone IDP camp 
in Magwi County.  The USAID team held large public 
meetings with IDPs in all locations.  It is clear from 
these meetings that most IDPs from Jonglei State are 
eager to return home.  USAID is planning an assisted 
returns program to transport up to 20,000 IDPs from these 
camps to villages in Jonglei beginning in March.  End 
summary and comment. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2.  Two USAID representatives from the USAID/SFO spent a 
week in Juba town and south of Juba in Kajo-Keji County 
west of the Nile River and Magwi County east of the Nile. 
The USAID team traveled with the Governor and the 
Political Advisor of Jonglei State, the County 
Commissioner of South Bor County, and senior staff of 
USAID partners Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Norwegian 
People's Aid (NPA), and Pact, Inc.  The purpose of the 
trip was to meet with government officials and with IDPs 
from the five main IDP camps in Central and Eastern 
Equatoria, and to review the IDP situation and the 
feasibility of an assisted returns program to Jonglei. 
 
¶3.  The five IDP camps in Kajo-Keji and Magwi were 
established in 1993 and 1994, following a 1991 attack on 
Bor County in Jonglei State by the southern faction that 
broke away from Sudan People's Liberation Movement 
(SPLM).  The attackers, mainly Nuer, killed thousands of 
people and stole or killed hundreds of thousands of 
cattle, destroying the livelihood of the Bor Dinka and 
driving about 150,000 of Dinka to Equatoria, where camps 
were established on both banks of the Nile.  Another 
group fled with their cattle from South Bor west to 
Mundri, where they remained until 2005.   USAID has been 
the main donor to these IDP camps.  The NGOs CRS and NPA 
have been USAID's key partners from the beginning - NPA 
west of the Nile and CRS east of the Nile.  Both run 
large logistics programs, trucking food aid from Mombasa, 
Kenya, and providing agricultural inputs and training. 
 
¶4.  Since 1997 USAID has invested in services in Bor 
County to prepare for the eventual return of the IDPs. 
CRS and NPA are implementing food aid and agricultural 
programs - CRS in South Bor, and NPA in Twic East and Duk 
Counties. (Note:  The Bor area is now split into three 
counties.  End note.)  Food aid is trucked in during the 
dry season from Mombasa through Lokichokio and delivered 
to rural locations for distribution to returnees.  NPA 
and CRS also provide agricultural inputs, mosquito nets, 
and tools to assist returnees with clearing the bush and 
building huts from local materials.  Local NGOs are 
providing health services, USAID partner Pact, Inc. is 
drilling boreholes, and the NGO CARE is building schools 
and running a veterinary program. 
 
¶5.  The camp population has decreased over the years as 
people have returned to Bor or gone elsewhere.  The total 
estimate of Bor IDPs currently in the two counties is 
more than 45,000.  The latest figures are based on 
headcounts in 2005 and are being reconfirmed in 
registrations.  In Kajo-Keji County, there are about 
14,500 Bor Dinka in three camps.  Bor IDPs account for 90 
 
KHARTOUM 00000701  002 OF 004 
 
 
percent of Nimule town's 12,800 IDPs, who fled a nearby 
camp in December due to insecurity.  Nimule is now 
overcrowded and services are overstretched.  Lobone has 
32,000 IDPs, including 21,000 from Bor. 
 
¶6.  The large concentration of Nilotic IDPs from Upper 
Nile and Bahr el Ghazal has become a destabilizing factor 
in Equatoria.  When the IDPs came to Equatoria in the 
early 1990s, they pushed out thousands of Equatorians to 
Uganda, where most still live in refugee camps.  In 
addition, most of the SPLA armed forces deployed in 
Equatoria were Nilotics.  Now that peace has come to the 
South, people want to return to their home areas to 
reclaim their land, re-establish themselves, and develop 
their villages and counties.  It is also GoSS policy that 
IDPs should return to their home areas.  Tensions have 
been high in recent months between Equatorians and 
Nilotics, with several incidents of fighting and some 
killings reported.  This is causing Nilotics from 
Equatoria to return to Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal. 
The biggest group of Nilotics in Equatoria is the Bor 
Dinka. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Coordination with GoSS and the U.N. 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  Before traveling to the IDP camps, USAID and the 
Governor of Jonglei met with GoSS Vice President Riek 
Machar in Juba to brief him on the purpose of the trip 
and to solicit a commitment from GoSS to provide security 
along the routes of return.  VP Machar was fully 
knowledgeable of the situation and pleased at the 
mission, which if successful will improve stability in 
both Equatoria and Jonglei.  He pledged GoSS support for 
the effort, including security along return routes. 
 
¶8.  USAID also met with heads of U.N. agencies for 
Southern Sudan in Juba before and after the trip.  The 
U.N. is leading a parallel returns program, aimed at the 
Bor Dinka cattle camps that were in Mundri and smaller 
groups of Bor Dinka in other locations in Equatoria.  The 
U.N. and the International Organization for Migration 
(IOM) are running a barge operation from Juba to Bor town 
that is committed to transporting approximately 11,000 
people over 5 months.  (Note:  The barge operation is 
temporarily halted due to the acute watery diarrhea 
outbreaks in Juba and Bor towns.  End note.)  It may be 
possible at some point to transport some of the Kajo-Keji 
and Magwi IDPs on the U.N. barge; however, the U.N. does 
not have additional capacity to be substantially involved 
in the USAID-funded Kajo-Keji and Magwi returns program. 
USAID and the U.N. will coordinate closely.  Since local 
authorities and the IDPs themselves fear further security 
problems in Equatoria, the NGOs supported by USAID are 
planning to begin to transport IDPs to Bor by road in 
March. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Previous Preparation for Returns 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  USAID has supported several activities in preparation 
for the return of these IDPs to their home areas.  In 
2001, USAID funded a pilot project through NPA that 
transported approximately 6,000 IDPs from these same 
camps to Bor.  Though successful, the pilot did not lead 
to larger returns due to concerns about insecurity and 
lack of services in Bor.  In December 2004, USAID through 
CRS transported 50 IDPs from all these camps to visit 
their home areas in Bor for 5 weeks so the IDPs could see 
what facilities and services were in place.  In January 
2006, USAID through Pact, Inc. brought Bor elders from 
various places, including Khartoum and these IDP camps, 
to meet with local and state authorities in Bor to 
discuss how the Bor community that scattered in 1991 will 
come together in 2006 from various locations of 
displacement.  For the past five years, USAID has 
supported civil society groups (mainly church leaders) to 
reconcile the various ethnic communities of Jonglei who 
have been fighting each other for most of the past 
 
KHARTOUM 00000701  003 OF 004 
 
 
decade. 
 
-------- 
Findings 
-------- 
 
¶10.  The team found that the vast majority of IDPs from 
Bor are ready to return, but require assistance with 
transportation.  Approximately 1,000 people attended the 
team's final meeting, held in Lobone, and expressed 
eagerness to return.  The IDPs are satisfied with 
security in Bor following the signing of the CPA and the 
establishment of the GoSS in Juba and the Jonglei State 
government in Bor town.  The IDPs are aware that some 
services will be poorer in Bor than in the Equatoria 
camps, but they are also aware of the factors pushing 
them from Equatoria.  IDPs in Magwi County fear for their 
security should they remain in Equatoria, as this county 
has been the main area of activity of the Lord's 
Resistance Army.  In December, 10 IDPs were killed 
outside of Lobone camp, and another 2 killed near Nimule 
town.  The IDPs also know that Equatorian refugees are 
returning from Uganda, and are aware of outbreaks of 
conflict in other parts of Equatoria between Nilotics and 
Equatorians.  One woman in Mangalatore camp said, "Those 
who own this land have come to reclaim their land and 
have started to build their huts among us."  Finally, the 
IDPs know that the U.N. is assisting Bor Dinka in other 
parts of Equatoria to return to Bor, including the very 
large cattle herd that devastated local farms in Mundri 
for 13 years.  This group crossed the Nile in December 
and January on its way back to Bor. 
 
¶11.  At all meetings, officials from Jonglei State and 
the County Commissioners from Magwi and Kajo-Keji 
stressed that the IDPs are not being told to leave 
Equatoria and welcome to remain.  Nevertheless, USAID's 
support to the IDPs in the camps as a special category of 
beneficiaries will end in the near future.  IDPs who 
choose to remain in Equatoria will have to integrate into 
communities and, if needed, be assisted through general 
assessments of vulnerable groups. 
 
---------- 
Next Steps 
---------- 
 
¶12.  At the end of the trip, the USAID/GoSS/NGO team 
agreed to commence a program to assist IDPs from the 
Equatorian camps to return to their home areas.  First 
steps include a formal request by the GoSS to USAID for 
support to such a program, voluntary registration of IDPs 
who are ready to return, medical screening (primarily for 
sleeping sickness, which is prevalent in Kajo-Keji and 
parts of Magwi), and a survey of routes and overnight 
rest points.  The team agreed that the program will begin 
in Nimule because of insecurity and the town's 
overcrowded conditions and overstretched resources.  The 
second priority will be Lobone, and third will be the 
camps in Kajo Keji.  Registration of IDPs and medical 
screening began in Nimule in early March. 
 
¶13.  It will not be possible for all interested IDPs to 
return before the expected commencement of rains in 
Jonglei in May, when rural roads will become impassable. 
The program will resume when the rains end in October and 
November.  With USAID funding, agencies are pre- 
positioning relief supplies, including food aid, 
agricultural and fishing inputs, mosquito nets, and grass 
and sticks for shelter, in rural Bor. 
 
¶14.  NPA and CRS will be the lead organizations in the 
program.  Both NGOs have been working with the Bor IDPs 
from the beginning and are sufficiently established to 
assist the IDPs upon their return to Bor.  NPA and CRS 
have the management and logistical capability and the 
funding from USAID/DCHA, through the Office of U.S. 
Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of Food for 
Peace, to do this quickly and well.  Funding has been 
provided to transport 20,000 IDPs to Bor, which is about 
one-half the total IDP population.  USAID may have 
 
KHARTOUM 00000701  004 OF 004 
 
 
additional funding available in FY 2007 for the remaining 
IDPs.  Funding is also available to assist the smaller 
number of IDPs from within Equatoria going shorter 
distances to return to their home areas. 
 
STEINFELD