United Nations: More S. Sudanese Await Transport from Khartoum

An increasing number of ethnic South Sudanese are living in makeshift conditions in the Sudanese capital, hoping for transport to South Sudan, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

Estimates from community leaders say that up to 38,000 South Sudanese are now staying in so-called "departure points" around the capital Khartoum, said Philippa Candler, assistant representative for protection with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sudan.

"It's gone up quite substantially," particularly since March and April, she told Agance France Press, adding that last year there were about 16,000 South Sudanese in the departure points, the number of which has now reached 37.

In some places, a few families are "sort of squatting" with their belongings, while others are grouped in makeshift shelters, Candler said.

A number of reasons seem to be behind the upsurge.

Candler said some had hoped to travel south on road convoys which Sudan and South Sudan organized in March, before fighting escalated along the disputed border.

Others are reporting that they can no longer afford to pay rent.

All ethnic southerners in Sudan's civil service lost their jobs ahead of South Sudan's independence last July.

After a major airlift of about 12,000 South Sudanese from the Kosti way-station outside the capital, some other Southerners think the Khartoum departure points could be the scene of another major transportation initiative, Candler added.

The International Organization for Migration says it will conclude on Wednesday its airlift of people from Kosti, many of whom were living in makeshift shelters or barn-like buildings for up to a year.

But the IOM says the airlift was "exceptional" because of the urgency of moving people who had been waiting months for transport, and who were finally told to leave by local authorities.

"By air is not a solution for everybody," said Jill Helke, IOM's head of mission in Sudan.

Sudan and South Sudan still need to work out an official plan detailing the numbers of people and where they want to go.

South Sudan's embassy estimated that about 350,000 ethnic Southerners remained in the north after an April 8 deadline to either formalize their status in the north or leave the country.

Many have spent their entire lives in the north or came to Sudan when they were children, as millions fled a 22-year civil war. The war ended in a 2005 peace deal which led to South Sudan's independence.

Hundreds of thousands made their way from Sudan to South Sudan ahead of the separation or in subsequent months.