Attacks by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army in southern Sudan and northern Uganda are affecting the repatriation of Sudanese refugees.
The Head of United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Arua Sub-Office, Marceline Hepie, says recent LRA attacks have halted humanitarian activities in southern Sudan, including the return of Sudanese refugees.
UNHCR plans to voluntarily repatriate five to ten thousand refugees in Uganda by 2006. Official figures put the total refugee population in Uganda at over 200 thousand, most of them Sudanese.
Hepie says the first group of refugees was to be repatriated in October. However this process was suspended until the security situation in northern Uganda and southern Sudan improves.
Hepie says registration and verification of refugees who are willing to voluntarily go home will start in January 2006.
