Bentiu, Sudan—In the center of this southern town, in a dusty public square with just a few trees for precious shade, 19 busloads of people arrived from Khartoum on Sunday, the first day of voting in this week’s historic referendum for independence. They were just a fraction of the 36,800 “returnees” that officials estimate have flooded into Unity state, of which Bentiu is the capital city, over the past two months. These returnees—which some here expect could eventually top 100,000—are people who fled Unity state during years of bloody, costly war, but who have traveled back because they want to live in a new, free South Sudan. Read the rest of the article as it appeared . . .
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