The opening of two new return corridors from Ethiopia to southern Sudan will ease the repatriation of thousands of refugees, mostly to Upper Nile, Jonglei and Blue Nile States, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The refugees have been living in Fugnido, Dimma and Yarenja camps in western Ethiopia. The first convoy of 800 left on Saturday from Fugnido for Pagak.
"The new corridors bring to eight the total number linking Sudan's southern neighbours - the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia - with various locations inside south Sudan," UNHCR spokesperson, Ron Redmond, told a news conference on 9 March in Geneva.
The repatriation convoys are organised by UNHCR, the Ethiopian government and the International Organization for Migration. Another group of 500 refugees was due to leave Yarenja camp, north of Gambella, through the Yarenja-Bambodi-Damazin corridor.
"We plan to organise a total of three convoys this month to help repatriate Yarenja's small camp population of 1,500 refugees," UNHCR said. "In 2007, we plan to assist 20,000 Sudanese return from Ethiopia - nearly a third of the 66,000 Sudanese refugees living in the country."
So far, 6,285 Sudanese refugees have returned home from Ethiopia - spurred on by relative peace in southern Sudan after the signing of the peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA) in January 2005.
UNHCR estimates that 102,000 refugees altogether have returned to south Sudan from various countries.