By Jared Ferrie

South Sudan’s government has struggling to accommodate more than 350,000 people who have returned since October 2010 – and with another million southerners still in the north, that pressure is likely to increase.

Relatives gathered at Juba Port on Nov. 28 to wait for the arrival of two barges filled with more 3,200 returnees. Cheers, ululations and cries of "hallelujah" arose from the banks of the Nile and from the decks of the barges as they approached the port after 12 days on the river.

...Duer Tut Duer Makuac, chair of the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, said the organisation would coordinate with governors and county commissioners in the home areas of returnees to organise land distribution. But he said the process has not always gone smoothly, and some have been left landless.

"We knew from a long time ago that they are going to be brought to the south," Makuac said. "We were supposed to organise ourselves a long time ago, it was not done, but this time it is going to be done."

....In October, Refugees International, a non-governmental organisation, highlighted the plight of those stranded in Kosti, and Renk, which are neighbouring towns on opposite sides of the Sudan/South Sudan border. The organisation said they were trapped without adequate food or shelter, and called on the government and humanitarian agencies to do more to bring them home.

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