South Sudanese refugees returning home

The first wave of South Sudanese refugees arrived in the capital of Juba following an airlift organized by international aid agencies, the United Nations said. The U.N. Refugee Agency said the first group of 326 South Sudanese arrived in their home country after spending several months "in a congested and increasingly tense site in Sudan." The refugees had started making their way to ancestral lands when South Sudan gained independence in July under the terms of a 2005 peace deal that ended the country's civil war. They were stranded in part because of a shortage of transportation. "Many of these families have been waiting for months and months to return," U.N. humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan Lisa Grande said in a statement. The movement was organized by the International Organization for Migration, which said last month it was working to assist the estimated 1,300 South Sudanese refugees trapped on the Sudanese side of the border because of recent fighting. Fighting escalated when South Sudanese forces took control of the oil town of Heglig, which lies along the ill-defined border separating the countries. Members of the U.N. Security Council called on both sides to end the violence. An estimated 35,000 people have been displaced by border fighting.