Shattered infrastructure and the threat of landmines are delaying the assisted return of thousands of south Sudanese refugees languishing in camps in northern Uganda, the UN refugee agency said on Saturday. A peace deal for Sudan that ended Africa's longest-running civil war last month has given hope to many of the 3 million people thought to have fled the 21-year conflict.
Uganda hosts about 220,000 of them, more than any other country bordering Sudan. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says moves to transport them home are not expected to start until October.
"We are taking a very cautious, phased approach," Cindy Burns, the agency's representative in Uganda, told Reuters.
"UNHCR has not been operating in southern Sudan for 20 years, so we are starting from scratch to begin receiving these groups. There is very little infrastructure in place, and of course there is the huge problem of landmines."
She said officials from seven nations hosting Sudanese refugees - Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda - held talks in Khartoum this week to discuss repatriation plans.
Sudan's civil war broadly pitted the Islamist government based in the north against the mainly Christian, pagan south, complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology.
Analysts say some of those who fled to neighbouring states do not necessarily support southern leader John Garang - who becomes vice president under the peace deal - and are seeking assurances of their safety before making the journey home.
Uganda's minister of state for disaster preparedness, Christine Amongin Aporu, said it was vital leaders from Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement visited the camps in northern Uganda to educate the residents about the accord with Khartoum.
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