Over 1.7 million people have returned to South Sudan between February 2007 and September 2012 placing a huge stress on food, health, education and other meagre resources in the country.
International Organization for Migration or IOM organized an Area of Return Tracking system and its findings are stunning: in the last five years, 1,786,000 persons returned to South Sudan, almost 20 percent of the local population.In 2012 alone, the returns stand at over 131 thousand.
Northern Bahr El Ghazal was the state that welcomed more returnees: over 459 thousand, followed by Unity (almost 287 thousand) and Lakes (231 thousand).
Western Equatoria received the least number of returnees Ð 51 thousand Ð followed by Eastern Equatoria (almost 61 000) and Upper Nile (64 thousand).
By regions, Bahr El Ghazal welcomed over 953 thousand returnees Ð well over half of the total, Upper Nile 500 thousand and Equatoria over 332 thousands.