Sudan

The number of Sudanese refugees returning from exile since the end of the country's civil war topped 300,000 last weekend, marking a milestone in a repatriation operation aimed at assisting nearly 500,000 people uprooted by the conflict, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. Southern Sudanese and UNHCR officials were on hand at the Sudanese/Ugandan border on Feb. 7 to welcome the 300,000th returnee - 72-year-old Antazia Dulu who fled her homeland in 1991 - and a convoy of 240 returnees. (UN News Service)