Repatriation Project

NPA Food Security Programme received funding from USAID/OFDA on 3 occasions to work with partners in order to show that practical repatriation of Bor Dinka IDPs from the camps in Eastern and Western Equatoria was not only viable but should take place to allow earliest resettlement to their home areas.

The people of Bor were particularly affected by the split in the SPLM/A in 1991 when the combined forces of the SPLM/A splinter group led by Commanders Riek Machar, Lam Akol and Gordon Koang, together with Government of Sudan (GOS) militia and Nuer tribesmen (“White Army”) attacked and invaded the Bor area. 

Thousands of Bor Dinka were killed, livestock was looted, villages burned and about 13,000 women and children were abducted. More than half the population fled the area to Eastern Equatoria and across the Nile to Western Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal where they have been living mostly in displaced camps. Over the years some of the IDPs have returned home but many feared the insecurity of the war years and continued to live in the IDP camps.

As relative peace in the Bor area prevailed in later years and insecurity in Equatoria region increased due to local ethnic tensions and LRA activities, so people expressed a willingness to return home, if assisted. The IDPs also noted the spread of diseases such as river blindness, sleeping sickness and HIV/AIDS, which further strengthened the desire of at least the older people to return home, while the younger people were enjoying the relative modernity of Northern Kenya and Uganda nearby.

NPA had been supporting the IDPs in 3 camps in Kajo-Keji on the West Bank with relief food and agricultural inputs through FFP, OFDA and MFA Norway funding since the mid 1990s and it was logical for NPA to discuss with the donors, local authorities and IDPs on ways to assist their return home. This led to the 3 phases of the repatriation project as described, which although not entirely successful for many reasons, did demonstrate that the logistical constraints could be overcome if determined effort and coordination was made and local partners were taken on board.

Following the last activities by NPA in early 2007, IOM began planning for the movement of IDPs from the 3 IDP camps in Kajo-Keji. Once again delays were encountered by IOM but this time it was coupled with a phase out of both relief food and agricultural support from NPA (with FFP and OFDA funding) in early 2008, to further encourage the repatriation process. The camps were closed by mid-2008. 

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