Sudan is preparing to open the polls on Sunday for voters in Southern Sudan to decide whether to break away from Sudan and form a new independent state. The vote is being held under the 2005 peace agreement that ended a nearly four-decade civil war between the North and South that killed some 2.5 million Sudanese. The United Nations has reported thousands of Southern Sudanese are arriving daily from the North ahead of the vote.

David Gressly: “An estimated 143,000 Southerners have left Northern Sudan since the end of October and are continuing to arrive in the country’s Southern states at about a rate of 2,000 people per day. About two-thirds of the returnees are believed to return — reach their hometowns and villages. But many remain stuck in the capital cities of their native states in the South and are waiting means of transport to reach their hometown or village. U.N. humanitarian agencies are working with the government of Southern Sudan to support their return.”