400 Sudan refugees back home from Central Africa: UNHCR

KHARTOUM (AA) - More than 400 Sudanese refugees have returned home from the Central African Republic (CAR) since Dec. 12, according to the UNHCR, the UN’s main refugee agency.

Early last month, the UNHCR began a program for the voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees from a camp located in CAR’s south-central town of Bambari.

According to the refugee agency, repatriation flights began on Dec. 12, with the UNHCR arranging 66 chartered flights last month alone for the repatriation of some 1,500 Sudanese refugees.

In 2007, roughly 3,500 Sudanese fled the conflict in the troubled Darfur region to CAR. The refugees were housed at the Pladama Ouaka camp near Bambari, a town of some 40,000 people lying on the Ouaka River.

According to UNHCR officials, the agency remains in close contact with both the CAR and the Sudanese authorities as it continues to provide returnees with air and land transport.

Roughly two million Sudanese are currently internally displaced, while more than 650,000 Sudanese refugees live in neighboring countries, including Chad and South Sudan, according to UN figures.

* Diyar Guldogan contributed to the story from Ankara.