UNITED NATIONS, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The UN envoy for South Sudan said Tuesday that since a peace deal was signed last September, over half a million displaced South Sudanese have decided to return home.
UN Secretary-General's Special Representative David Shearer told the Security Council that amid the drop in political violence, many displaced families "have decided it is safe, and time, to return to their homes."
Citing the International Organization for Migration, he said "more than half a million people have done so -- including more than 210,000 who returned from neighboring countries."
However, he cautioned the numbers of returns are relatively small compared to the 2.3 million refugees and 1.9 million internally displaced. "But it reflects a growing trend."
He added before the signing of the peace deal, the number of people returning home each month averaged about 18,000, and that since the deal was signed, this number has jumped to 76,000 each month.
South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013 and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.
A peace deal signed in August 2015 collapsed following renewed violence in the capital Juba in July 2016.
On Sept. 12, 2018, the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan was signed in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
Under the new deal, opposition leader Riek Machar with four others will once again be reinstated as South Sudanese President Salva Kiir's deputy.
