Sudanese churches say huge resources needed to resettle refugees

by Fredrick Nzwili
Ecumenical News International

NAIROBI — Sudanese church leaders say they are ready to receive millions of refugees returning home following the signing of an agreement to end Sudan’s civil war but caution that huge resources will be needed to resettle the returnees.

       “They don’t have homes. They don’t have food. Our challenge is how we can resettle them,” Archbishop Joseph Marona of the Episcopal Church of Sudan told Ecumenical News International in Nairobi. “These are great challenges. We will need huge resources.”

      Retired Roman Catholic Bishop Paride Taban of Torit diocese said refugees had already started returning home before the signing on Jan. 9 of the agreement. It aims to end a more than 21 year‑long war between the mainly Christian and animist South and the Muslim North, that has displaced up to five million people.

      “We find the roads full of refugees returning without being told to go home,” said Taban.

      The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) which has been fighting for autonomy in the south of Sudan said it would require $1 billion every year for six years to return, resettle, rehabilitate and re‑integrate the refugees and internally displaced persons.

       The European Union has pledged 400 million euros ($526 million) while the United States has promised to increase its aid to Sudan to $200 million.

      Britain on Jan. 10 pledged 50 million pounds sterling ($94 million) towards the rebuilding of Sudan, to be channeled through the United Nations. “The UN has led international humanitarian action in Darfur as well as responded to the needs of Sudanese people,” Britain's development minister, Hilary Benn, told news agencies.

      Bright Mawudor, an official of the All Africa Conference of Churches, said the church grouping had put aside $50,000 in its 2005‑2006 budget to support Sudanese civil society.

      “The AACC is committed to ensure the civil society is educated to give a practical interpretation of the peace signed,” said Mawudor, who is the African church body’s finance and administration director. He said the Geneva‑based World Council of Churches had also committed $100,000 to support similar activities.