The International Organization for Migration says it will start transporting 18,000 South Sudanese stranded in Khartoum to back to their homes next month.

“The movement will be by the best possible means. I think we will start by road movement, probably to Northern Bahr El-Ghazal State, but there will also be some barge movement, and I would expect for the most vulnerable case we will be moving them by air,” IOM Chief of Mission for South Sudan, David Derthick, told Eye Radio. “Some people just should not travel that way by road.”

The IOM’s Matthew Graydon, says the agency has appealed for 10 million US dollars for assisting the repatriation of the South Sudanese refugees

“The individuals are stranded in what became known as open areas around Khartoum, and they are living in very difficult conditions—with limited access to basic services, and particularly the recent floods in Khartoum in August severely affected these people where you had houses washing away, people were dying and diseases were spreading,” he said.  “So the urgency to assist these individuals is very string, and both IOM offices in Sudan and South Sudan feel that the international community needs to act and assist these people.”

The Government of South Sudan estimates that there are 40,000 of its citizens who are still stranded in the Sudan.