The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced that about 1,500 South Sudanese stranded in Khartoum have left for Northern Bahr El Ghazal on Saturday.

According to an IOM report, the group leaving for Northern Bahr El Ghazal state are among the almost 20,000 South Sudanese who have been “stranded” in Khartoum for more than two years.

Without money to travel, many are living in the “semi-open”, in crude shelters made from cloth bags wrapped around metal crates, beds or other possessions, in conditions which the UN called “appalling.”

The Geneva-based IOM, with 155 member countries, in November appealed to donors for $10.5 million to support the Sudanese and South Sudanese governments in providing “safe and dignified” transport for the 20,000 Southerners still in Khartoum. However, the donors did not respond and IOM is to use its own resources to provide buses and trucks for Saturday’s convoy.

The initiative is led by the governments of Sudan and South Sudan, which have agreed to provide security.

The convoy was the first major repatriation for months, following a September summit between Sudan’s President Omar El Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir.

File photo