South Sudan’s independence is a fact after the week-long referendum ended on 15 January. With thousands of people having returned from the north for the elections and to take part in the building of a new nation, an enormous task lies ahead for the new South Sudan. The Danish Refugee Council is now stepping up support in South Sudan to help ensuring sustainable and lasting solutions for the returnees.

The historic referendum in South Sudan has paved the way for Africa’s newest independent nation. The turnout was more than the 60 percent needed to validate the vote and the European Union’s Election Observation Mission in Southern Sudan has described the referendum voting process credible, well organised, and with overwhelming participation by Southern Sudanese voters.

Now, the population of whom a large part is returnees are facing multiple challenges during the transition to independence and establishment of a new administration. With the decision to separate South Sudan from the north, a process of building a new nation is ahead as well as the challenge of ensuring access to medical, social, and legal aid. Furthermore, sustainable livelihoods are needed for the returnees in the new South Sudan. 

"It is essential to ensure rapid assistance as well as long term support for the returnees and especially for the most vulnerable among them. People have high expectations and there should be visible evidence of improved livelihoods, livings conditions and rights. They have chosen to come back to South Sudan in the hope of independence, but many have come back to nothing. People are now settling wherever they can, and in some areas simply along roadsides, waiting for authorities and a new administration to be able to divide and distribute land for returnees," says Anders Engberg, head of desk for South Sudan with the Danish Refugee Council.

As soon as land has been distributed, the Danish Refugee Council is ready to support the returnees with seed and tools enabling them to become self-supporting and independent.

"Already by now, there are needs for emergency aid for the most vulnerable among the returnees. And support is needed for the process of establishing and recreating daily life for returnees. Emergency schools need to be set up until more permanent structures are in place, and access to a wide range of services from health clinics to legal aid need to be in place to avoid humanitarian crisis or conflicts in this fragile situation," says Anders Engberg from the Danish Refugee Council.

The election was part of the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between the south and the north. More than two million were killed during the war and four million were displaced.

With funding from the EC, ECHO, and Danida, the Danish Refugee Council has worked in support of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda since 1999 and in South Sudan since 2005.

Background: 20 years of civil war:

In 2005, Sudan emerged from a two-decade civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Animist and Christian south, only to see fighting break out in the western region of Darfur in early 2003. The north-south civil war is said to have cost the lives of 1.5 million people. In Darfur, the UN says more than two million people have fled their homes, and over 200,000 have been killed due to direct and indirect consequences of the war.

In January 2005, after two years of bargaining, the southern rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal with the government to end the civil war. Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Nairobi, the south was granted limited autonomy and a referendum on full independence by 2011. The accord provides for a high degree of autonomy for the south. The region will also share oil revenue equally with the north.

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